One of philosophy’s charms for me is the opportunity to think, as if for the first time, about the meaning of ideas essential to good living. What is good living? What is persistence? What is possibility? What is belonging? What is empathy? This constant reexamination widens our perspective and guards against our falling into the trap of stale assumptions and preconceptions. I can think of no idea that begs for rethinking more than the concept of success. What is it?
Read MoreMy friend and neighbor Blue O’Connell loves music, animals, nature (especially trees), and friends. A few years ago, she traded a job with financial benefits for one with other kinds of perks: writing and playing music at schools, nursing homes, hospitals, parties, just about any place. She patches jobs together to make ends meet. Recently Blue bought happiness for herself and for countless others by giving a valuable possession away.
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“Give me hope, help me cope / with this heavy load,” George Harrison sang and strummed with three of his British friends in 1973. Wrong weighs like a wet blanket on our souls. Performing his song years later, Harrison’s prayer remains ours: “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).” Hearts seek light—hands want holding.
twenty-twenty-five / give us love…connect the dots… / our new-fashioned plans