“Observe both the things which come first and the things that follow; and then begin the act,” Epictetus wrote in his meditation on making wise decisions. This seems simple enough, yet many of us fail to heed the advice. Again and again, we repeat the same mistakes, oblivious to our tendency to stand in our … Read more
I love Nick Cave not for his music but for his writing. While loyal fans go to his concerts to listen to his songs, I go to his blog to read his sentences — beautiful and tender yet powerful and uncompromising sentences. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s called The Red Hand Files. It … Read more
“Look straight ahead / What’s there?” said Zen monk Bassui Tokusho moments before passing away. “If you see it as it is / you will never err.” This tender Japanese death poem would leave many of us utterly befuddled and awe-struck by its logic-shattering beauty and asking one simple question, “And then what?” Well, after … Read more
“One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible,” Henry Brooks Adams famously wrote. For the lucky few, it’s an axiom of life; for the unlucky many, it’s nothing more than a theorem to be proven. So how should we choose friends to swing the fortune in our favor? Is … Read more