Meaningful Human Connection

An antidote to polarization and violence A birthday celebration (Birthday girl not shown) I enjoyed Susan Vreeland’s novel Luncheon of the Boating Party so much I seriously considered a visit to The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.  to see Renoir’s painting by the same name. I didn’t go, but in visiting Vreeland’s website I found […]

The “Me” in Media

Is media the boss of me? Or am I the boss of it? What we communicate internally—whether in dreams, fantasies, fears, or aspirations—are to some degree written large upon the billboards, headlines, screens, and ads of our civilization. In this sense, inside media becomes inside me. —  Tom Cooper, Professor of Communication, Emerson College. What we […]

A Paradigm Shift In Consciousness

Tenants of the shift to interdependence, unity and love Diverse cells rise, become illuminated and enter a circle of light, expanded consciousness. Higher yet is the Great Mystery where infinite potential resides. According to Mirriam-Webster Dictionary, a paradigm shift is an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something […]

Awe

The feeling we get when touched by something vast After watching the last episode in season three of Northern Exposure, I got up from my chair and for several minutes walked around exclaiming, “Awesome storytelling! Awesome writing! Awesome acting! Wonderful, awesome costuming! Fantastic location—how’d they do that? Atmospherics—awesome! Lighting—awesome!” Wearing out the word “awesome,” I […]

Acceptance

Receiving something offered; not resisting what is; going with the flow It’s easy to accept a good thing when it’s offered, not so easy when life presents an upsetting or life-threatening challenge. Acceptance doesn’t mean liking, wanting or agreeing with what is, it’s a matter of embracing what’s happening because it has a purpose. Doing […]

Worldview

How we see the world, what we believe about it, creates our experience. Human beings are meaning makers. Without having an anchor, a view of the world that makes sense of our existence, there’s little to no reason to carry on. As thinking and caring individuals who can rise above biological instincts, we have an […]

What’s So Critical About Critical Thinking?

It’s a vaccine against lies, disinformation and conspiracy theories. My grandson, Ethan Miller, and I face off in a heady game of checkers. In an era when untruths have been proliferating across platforms in the form of disinformation, misinformation, fake news, lies and conspiracy theories, it’s refreshing and hope-inducing to know that there’s a vaccine […]

There’s More to Exchanging Gifts Than Meets The Eye

The art of making someone happy and celebrating the relationship This is our grandson, Ethan Miller. He was five-years-old. I choose this image because it represents the kind of joy we’d all like to see on someone’s face when they receive a gift from us. The subtitle indicates that there’s an art to gift-giving because […]

Acknowledgment

An expression of gratitude for an action or achievement Dr. Albert Sabin As part of a prime-time medical series for television called A Matter Of Life, producer David George and I filmed Dr. Sabin in his Washington, D.C. lab. An entire program was devoted to his development of the oral polio vaccine, which played a key […]

Reality Mirrors Beliefs

“The world reflects back to you what you deeply believe.” I wasn’t sure of the source of this quote, but it recently prompted me to wonder. Could the negative belief that my three novels of the ancient Maya are not being widely read is actually creating that reality? Some research explained that subconscious beliefs shape the […]