There is No Mastery Without Competition

I like to carve spoons. I also like meditating in the morning, reading books, and farming. None of these seem “competitive.” There isn’t a prize or adversary. The premium is on learning, attention, and practice. And yet, they are competitive in that by allocating my time, energy, and attention to carving, sitting, or reading, I […]

What is Rich?

What is rich? A million dollars? A billion dollars? More than the other guy? Own your own island? Two jets? Not having to follow the rules? Or The love of family and friends? Thinking to yourself, “Nobody is having a better time right now than I am.” A good book and not wanting to do […]

Enter Slowly

At our local Zen Center, we don’t just enter the room. We stop, bow, and then enter. In some traditions, it’s a little bow. In others, it’s three bows going to the floor and back. Other spiritual traditions have similar practices. You don’t just enter the room. You don’t just do the next thing. There’s […]

The Map is not the Terrain

A geodetic map shows terrain lines. It’s helpful if you plan to hike, bike, or ride across the land. An Atlas (the old kind printed on paper) sections the landscape into “states” or “countries” and highlights “cities” and parks and mountains and maybe roads. A road map sections the landscape in standard increments and highlights […]

A Full Measure of Kindness

George Saunders is an American writer and winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo. His commencement speech to the 2013 graduates at Syracuse University is an ode to kindness. It’s one of the finest pieces of elocution I’ve come across in many years.  The weight of this marvelous […]

The Gift of Persistence

I have to admit it. I’m a fan of the “Persistence Hunting Hypothesis.” The idea is that humans evolved as endurance runners. As the recent Olympic games have amply demonstrated, some of us are capable of incredible speed. But even the fastest will be shown the backside of any number of critters in a sprint, […]

Certain About One Thing

Werner Heisenberg was a giant of 20th-century physics. If you were collecting physicist trading cards, you’d want one of his. If you took high school physics, you probably remember hearing about “Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.” If not, here’s the simple version . . . You can measure where a particle is or where it’s going, but […]

Lost in Space. Or Not.

Like most people, I’m not following what is or isn’t going on at the International Space Station. I might be able to pick Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams out of a photo montage, but only if they were posing in flight suits and floating weightless. If none of this is ringing a bell, you are […]

Remember the Time When . . . ?

Yesterday, four of us went to a local car show. It’s a delightful tradition in our community and very down-to-earth. There are a few high-end wondercars, but mostly, it’s just fun stuff community members own. An MG TD parked next to a BMW 2002 on one side and a lifted Willys Jeep on the other. […]

Just Like You

Sometimes, the roles we inhabit can box us in or weigh us down. If I’m with my children and slip into “dad” mode and they into “child” mode, our interactions too easily head down well-traveled paths. If I meet you for the first time across a checkout counter, my “customer is always right” meets your […]