My society (I’m not sure about yours) is completely saturated in a “self-help” phenomenon. There are books to guide you towards making money at home, being creative, adapting to a new job, attaining self-actualization, finding Jesus, losing weight, making friends, being gay, and an endless list of niche topics. I occasionally do editing for woman who has made a very successful career out of telling

I’d love to say that the existentialists were spot-on. I love the existentialists. I like their ideals and most of them were poets or playwrights or filmmakers or constructed these grand metaphors that read like the bible. I mean, they were ambitious artists as well as philosophers. But the unfortunate truth is that they were only half right. We are indeed free beings, autonomous in so

I’m getting married. Thanks, yeah, that’s nice of you to say, thanks. Just look for my wish list on Amazon for the gifts. Here’s the kicker, I’m getting married on the French Riviera. A little background on my personal endeavor: I’m a writer. My fiancée is a translator. These are good jobs, fulfilling jobs. We don’t punch the clock or take orders from middle-managers. We make our

What did you do today? And “nothing” is incorrect. Philosophy and religion, in their truly infinite range and scope, have grappled with the question of what it is to be alive, furthermore, what it is to be human. They’ve wondered what or where is consciousness. They struggle with choice and free will. They’ve tried to order the universe or have even given it over to chaos. The avid reader of

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.” -Kierkegaard. Maybe you’ve had those conversations with your friends, a few beers in your belly or just feeling vulnerable and open for whatever reason, and you asked them: “What if life is just a dream?” It’s laughable isn’t it? It’s so cliché! Life isn’t a dream, silly!