‘Enough’ is anti-consumerist. For one, it espouses limits. For another, it looks at needs, not wants. And above all, it values long-term societal health over short-term personal gain. It just might save us. — Enough isn’t a sexy doctrine. Far from the life of the party, it’s the rational voice that tells you skip the nightcap and get a good night’s sleep. While everybody knows it’s right to espouse these things, nobody enjoys the reminder.

What you know about memory is entirely wrong. It’s time for a new script to replace the old one. — They say ignorance is bliss. Most of us use the expression as a cautionary tale: that the burden of memory can be overwhelming. It’s true. …

New York City in the 90’s was a supernova, uncorking the high-pressure energy of a decades-long war on its “Mean Streets”, to give birth to a new Gotham. Every day, walking around, my mind reels at what was, and is no longer. — Nightlife “Hi. Name’s Candy. As in, tastes just like.” It was a random Saturday night, and I frankly can’t recall the nightclub. All I knew is that Peter Gatien’s Club Kids were there, and the party was in full swing. Naked bodies on all fours balanced drinks on backs, while other…

On Earth Day, some quick thoughts to put living in perspective of the larger arc of time and space. — Billion: a number beyond reach, beyond reference, filling 31.7 years in as many seconds. How many can you remember? How many were profound enough to be distinct—to remain potent in your life today? What does a lifetime of seconds add up to, exactly? In one second, a Sheikh can buy…

Living in the moment is, in a sense, the only accurate definition of “living”. But to be here now, we must give up a past in which most of us remain stuck, a present whose outcomes we struggle to control, and a future whose non-existence is frankly irrelevant. — Who am I? It seems like such a simple question. Most of us wouldn’t hesitate. We would answer by referencing our cardinal points of orientation—things most of us will tell you “define a life”. We give them labels to point toward our lineage, contexts and shared rituals. …

I have traveled nearly every week, non-stop, to more than a dozen destinations throughout the pandemic. Somehow, I never got sick, in spite of constant crowds, hot spots and public transit. Here are ten things I learned. — Lesson 1: Nose-breathing Given that COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, its existence matters to us only if we inhale it. To this end, how we breathe matters. There are two ways: through the mouth or the nose.

Life, in essence, is a reconciliation of being—an internal struggle to find one’s center that often takes us to extremes on the way there. — In the Beginning If ever an axiom existed, it is that life is a journey. The journey it refers to is, in essence, the pursuit of self-knowledge—knowledge that we hope, ironically, will lead us to a destination, so that we can stop traveling. We never arrive.

What does it mean to be an American? I propose that it is, above all, to be a living paradox: internally conflicted and often self-contradictory, yet deeply human. — We go to war for our freedom, yet do everything in our power to limit others’. We resist governmental oversight, yet use those same tools to ensure our neighbors do what we want them to. We are publicly welcoming, yet privately bigoted. We are obsessed with physical appearance, yet continually…

The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era was focused on specialization. While blindly successful, it came at the price of open-ended exploration necessary to prepare us for the ‘unknowns’ that will define our future. — The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. Its prime accomplishment was the expansion of our ability to abstract the world. …