1.3 Why Read This? This essay is not a self-help manual.Though it does contain some practical steps they are not easy nor does this essay provide a daily routine to transform your life. It doesn’t promise quick breakthroughs or instant clarity. What it does offer is something both more modest and, I believe, more enduring: a framework for self-examination, rooted in lived experience, classical reasoning, and a belief that change is not only possible, but inevitable—if we understand how to direct it. At its heart, this is a logical [...]

Section 1: The Assignment That Exposed Me When I was in college, I had a professor named Kenmont Hoitsma. He taught both philosophy and comparative religion, but what he really taught was how to think. He was a commanding presence—tall, barrel-chested, with sandy, wavy hair receding from a high hairline—and he had the kind of voice that didn’t just lecture, but challenged. His assignments were deceptively simple: take a passage—a Bible verse, a line from the Bhagavad Gita, a poem by e.e. cummings—and define it with a single [...]

Bibliography Adler, Alfred. Understanding Human Nature. New York: Greenberg, 1927. Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958. Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago: George M. Hill Company, 1900. Chalmers, David J. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Damasio, Antonio. Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious. New York: Pantheon Books, 2021. Dennett, Daniel C. Consciousness Explained. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991. Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning. Translated by Ilse Lasch. Boston: [...]

I’m not great at following directions, especially when they don’t make sense. Take, for instance, the ATV guide’s directive to “keep it in third gear for beginners, fourth or fifth on the downhills.” Now, I’m no mechanic, but even I know that downshifting downhill makes more sense than coasting in high gear while praying the brakes don’t quit. Naturally, I ignored this advice. On the first straightaway, I threw the four-wheel-drive Honda into the low gears and gunned it uphill. The acceleration yanked on my busted left shoulder, sending [...]

This dialogue features a Socratic conversation between a teacher and a student delving into the essence of human action and its intrinsic link to imagination and freedom. Set in an academic environment, the teacher guides the student to uncover why humans act, how imagination shapes our choices, and how this capacity sets us apart from animals. The discussion is rooted in the ideas of Ludwig von Mises, a prominent Austrian economist and philosopher renowned for his seminal work, Human Action. In this influential book, Mises introduces praxeology, the study [...]

It’s hard to love a son who threatens to kill you. Life often presents us with conflicts that test our patience and resolve to their very limits. In those instances, I imagine how handy some Jedi mind tricks might be. Sadly, The Force is only imaginary. Happily, however, there is a force we can use to create a protective field around our hearts and minds. I discovered this force during a time of great inner stress and conflict and learned to employ it to protect my heart and mind [...]

I asked my wife, “Do you know how much of our DNA we share with chimpanzees?” She shrugged and guessed, “Maybe 50%?” I smiled and said, “Guess again—it’s shockingly high.” “80%?” she tried again. The truth is far higher. Geneticists estimate we share up to 98.7% of our DNA with chimps. That leaves just 1.3% of our DNA that makes us distinctly human. But what does that 1.3% truly give us? Besides less hair and the ability to walk upright, it’s this small difference that sparks our ability to [...]

Parents today face a critical challenge: how to raise independent, ethical adults in a world of competing extremes. On one side are helicopter parents, hovering over their children, managing every detail to ensure success but unintentionally stifling their growth. On the other side, some parents embrace the idea of their children’s moral superiority and total autonomy, giving them the reins but leaving them without the necessary guidance to develop responsibility and resilience. Both approaches fail to strike the balance children need. The key lies in understanding how to provide [...]

The Power of Not-Negative Thinking 1. Introduction “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” — Henry David Thoreau’s observation highlights the internal struggle many face, where negative thoughts quietly dominate the mind. This quiet desperation affects not just individuals, but society as a whole, manifesting in rising anxiety, depression, and feelings of isolation. The constant battle with negativity breeds escapism, anger, and self-absorption, further disconnecting us from others and contributing to social ills. Escaping this pattern requires more than simply positive thinking. While positivity plays an important role in cultivating [...]

The other day, I saw an ad for a college-level course on Nietzsche, taught by Jordan Peterson. Having recently read Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, I was curious about his interpretation. I’ve also read Peterson’s Twelve Rules for Life, a highly accessible book I’d recommend for its practical advice. However, my reaction to Nietzsche was entirely different—I wouldn’t advise anyone to study him beyond a cursory level without a solid grounding in psychological theories. While undeniably brilliant, Nietzsche strikes me as bitter and flawed, a thinker wrestling [...]