Remembering A Hero Of The Faith
What other-worldly level of strength, character, and faithfulness would it take for your spouse to write this about you after fifty (50!) years of marriage? A brilliant thinker who could engage any scholar on that level, a consummate professional writer who could pack more into three paragraphs than anyone I ever knew, a tender-hearted lover ...
What Do You Want, And Why?
“Sweetheart, what do you want for dinner?” “I don’t know, what do you feel like?” “I don’t care, whatever sounds good to you.” “Well, I don’t care either, and I asked you first.” We have conversations like this all the time, don’t we? We often don’t really know what we want to do next. But ...
Social Media Is Free, But …
Then we freely give back: Our time Our attention Our ideas Our photos, videos Everything we like A diary of our whole lives Unlimited permission to data mine everything we share Our relationships Our future And, because we’re all doing this, they play us against each other. We distract each other, while they keep cashing ...
You Are Not Your Feelings
Everyone’s heard this cultural mantra: our feelings define our identity. According to pop-culture wisdom, truth itself is created and validated by our feelings. We must listen to and act upon our emotions, as they are the most authentic part of who we are. Just think back to the most popular psalm of the cultural doctrine-defining ...
A Call For Noble Men
It means something to be a Smith. I come from a long line of Oregon wheat farmers. I tasted my heritage when Dad sent my teenage self away from my comfortable middle-class city life to hoe weeds around hundreds of acres of hot, arid, Eastern Oregon fields with my uncles and cousins. I’m grateful now, ...
The Battle Is Real
Do you ever feel like the problems of the world are so overwhelming, there’s nothing you can do? I’ve felt that way—consumed by fear of the future with a paralyzing inability to know what to do about it. Want to know the positive difference I made in the world while I was feeling that way? ...
Hatching A Risky New Desire
Is 2016’s newest holiday toy craze a Trojan horse Penguala, threatening to ensnare millions of unsuspecting children? Kids worldwide are begging Santa to bring them clever, cute, and harmless-looking toys called Hatchimals. Following similarly hyped interactive toys like Furby and Tamagotchi, Hatchimals simulate a real, ongoing relationship with their young owners. With stores running very ...
Where Are Your Desires Leading You?
I can remember wanting Fruity Pebbles for breakfast as a child. The Flintstone family, from the 60’s-era cartoon, were my frequent TV friends, and they loved Fruity Pebbles. So of course, I loved them too. On the rare occasion that my Mom bought them, I devoured bowl after bowl. As a kid, I never connected ...
Study shows Free Will is an Illusion. Really?
[~1,100 words, reading time: ~6 minutes] If you were being programmed to believe something that wasn’t true, and that lie was leading you to a harmful end, would you want to know? If there was an agenda to lead you to abandon reality and ultimately give up your freedom, would you be upset? Several weeks ...
Do We Have Free Will, or is Free Will an Illusion?
[~2,100 words, reading time: ~10 minutes] Many scientifically-minded people claim that mankind does not have free will. Instead, they say that all of our choices are determined by physical laws, and our perception of free will is an illusion. I hope to show that this claim is either false, or if it’s true then we ...
