I once met a man who kept a pet skunk. He (understandably) didn’t have many friends. I said to him, “Why don’t you get rid of the skunk?” “I can’t,” he replied, “it’s the only friend I have!” Where do your problems come from? They come from your “bad” decisions. What is a “bad” decision? One that isRead more
The Ego
Power I
There are basically two kinds of power. You are familiar with the first – Power Over. Power Over is the authority to require complicity with laws, regulations and rules of behavior. In our world Power Over is enforced by parents, police and the military. In the short term, Power Over is efficient. It may not always pick theRead more
Making Mistakes
Mistakes, errors, poor judgement, we’ve all made them, lots of them. We say it’s part of being human, and although that’s true, there is a lot more going on. I’m going to divide our “screw-ups” into two general categories – those where the ego gets involved and all the rest. The non-ego category is pretty straightforward. You apologize,Read more
Learning From Life
How concerned are you about what other people think? Some people worry about that a great deal. They are very concerned about things like social acceptance, whether others will like them, whether they are good enough – that sort of thing. Of course, we all want to be liked, and certainly you don’t want to cause harm intentionallyRead more
Making The Other An “It”
Hassidic philosopher Martin Buber wrote that people have two kinds of relationships. Buber defined these as either ”I : it,” or “I : You.” The difference is that in “I : it” the other person becomes a thing, an object, whereas in “I : you,” they retain their essential humanity. Since in “I : it,” the other has lostRead more