I lament the fall of the once mighty myth. Myth is about so much more than a non-factual story or colloquialisms about erroneous beliefs. We need myths to help articulate powerful truths about ourselves and the world in which we live.

The learning process is well understood, but so often we fail to use what we know. When you understand what learning is, and how performance is different from learning, you may find that your daughter getting 100% on all her worksheets could actually be a bad thing.

Druids, Norse, Christians: it’s been universal for us over the centuries to have concocted various ceremonial activities and festivals to coincide with major astronomic events.

What do misbehaving toddlers, out-of-control rock stars, and sleazy online vendors all have in common? They’re all depending on the same psychological principle to keep themselves in the limelight.

Call it “voluntary simplicity”, call it “lifehacking”, call it “downshifting”, or call it what you will, bigger is no longer better. Now “less” is chic and trendy. If you can whittle the sum total of your possessions down to 100 or less, you could be the next Internet celebrity. But the simplicity movement, like most movements, has a shadow. Let’s take a look at what can go wrong when you hop on the simplicity bandwagon.

Even though we’re not always inclined toward empathy and generosity or to live out our best ideals, perhaps the biggest blessing we all share is that we live in a world where so many people really do care for one another.

Death and mourning are both ubiquitous and yet unique. We are all bound to go through it sooner or later, and for each of us, it will be a singular and individual experience. Yet modern life demands that the laying to rest of loved ones must, by necessity, proceed according to imposed schedules. And that can mean a clash between the needs of the individual for time to mourn and those of society to provide funeral services for all.