“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” — Henry David Thoreau Desperation left unspoken has a special kind of dignity; it cloaks itself…
Darwin’s Theorem
Darwin’s theorem, stripped to its barest implication: survival is adaptation, not grandeur. The mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex, apex predator, succumbed to external forces beyond its control—cosmic,…
The Ghost in the Premise: Pain as Hidden Arbiter of Action
The body’s pains, like its pleasures, often occupy a less conspicuous role than they deserve—as ghostly premises behind our choices, intentions, and delays. Think of…
The Borrowed Illumination: Seeing the Vortex of Information with a Local Eye
To the local, the known neighborhood glows in intricate shades, layers of personal details and familiar intricacies. Beyond it, the unfamiliar places—the lives, cultures, and…
Valéry’s Contradiction: The Gift of Deprivation
“I owe everything to what everything now deprives me of.” —Paul Valéry In the strange calculus of self-formation, one might say that what a person…
The Gaze That Chains: Sartre’s Paradox of Freedom
“Hell is other people.” — Jean-Paul Sartre To perceive is to be perceived—an irony not lost on those who would prefer to feel autonomous, self-contained,…
Emerson’s filtered Self: The Great Accomplishment of Inner Authority
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson A perception…
A Paradox on the Banks of Becoming
Heraclitus’ insight that “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man” lays…
Loving Our Own Want: A Paradox of Fate
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” — Carl Rogers In the wisdom of Rogers…
The Candle of Clarity: The Last Religion
[Human created passage, “Seed”:] Advances in communication networking have surpassed the ability of the social hierarchy to control its message. Religion objects to its own…