Going Alone

Such a long hike to get here, now. The place where I set out from is invisible beyond those distant hills, a memory of setting out from a...

I keep forgetting - fooling myself, really - that I could be in any circumstance other than the one in which I find myself now. It's fun...

Our personal nature is our most visible evidence that our will is never fully free: as how many forces of my personal being - my...

I expect my consciousness is a connect-the-dots affair; a consequence of some trillions of atoms gathered and enlivened through the...

I took our sick dog Ollie to the doggie E.R. yesterday. The visit was a costly, though worthwhile expense, for Ollie's sake, as well as...

I have such a small and precious set of values - objectives and principles to guide my life. So very few. Each one is precious to me, as...

I wonder how far down the tree of life consciousness goes? Like us, dogs are clearly aware of themselves relative to the world, and can...

Necessity suggests a condition which must be met in order for a proposition to be true, while sufficiency guarantees the proposition is,...

How best might I prove myself wrong? I have this suspicion, not quite yet a belief perhaps, that free will is an illusion. How can I...

I swam yesterday in the sea. I swam possibly too far yesterday in the sea, as I am today quite worn and spent. I expect that this is a...

It is said that good actions are their own reward; bearing an immediate and lasting fruit of nearly tangible well-being unto at least the...

How much more decorous a possession than honest self-reflection; though there is nothing to see in such wealth besides the owner's...

Waking up early is a very good use of time; for it reminds us soon that we are still alive and provides an opportunity to bring in a full...

I believe that Yumiko and I are as prepared for our new life together as we might hope to be. With our daughter leaving us this coming...

Yumiko and I watched a movie last night called Ad Aster, starring Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones. We enjoyed the film, which is a science...

The arrival of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an opportunity to exercise the Stoic virtue of Apathy in the face of what we cannot easily...

November 12, 2019 Dear Eric, I recently added a new principle to The Good Life which I call the Principle of Public Speaking. The idea is...

November 6, 2019 Dear Eric, I am very good at being wrong. It's a knack, kinda. And I am often wrong on the same decision more than once....

October 31, 2019 Dear Eric, It's a neat trick to neither lament nor attempt to remember the lives we did not live. For we all walk...

October 30, 2019 Dear Eric, Both joy and suffering can yield the same sweet harvest if we know how to winnow the chaff from the grain....