As Covid-19 prowls the streets and venues of Michigan, my wife Teresa and I are holed up in our house in a quiet neighborhood on the west side of Ann Arbor. We’re safe and healthy and keeping each other good company. She’s been sewing face masks from high-end quilting cotton. … [Read more...] about Living and Dying with Coronavirus
How the Coronavirus Plays with Our Mind
It’s so easy now in the time of coronavirus to feel tense, helpless, and fearful. Yet these emotional states are major stressors. Stress weakens the immune system, so it’s obviously important to be emotionally strong. We can develop this strength by becoming more insightful about … [Read more...] about How the Coronavirus Plays with Our Mind
Access the Genius Within
Genius is ours for the taking if we know where to look. Just ask three geniuses: Vladimir Nabokov, Immanuel Kant, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. While these guys were natural-born geniuses, a capacity for genius is available to everyday people. Nabokov, the novelist, said … [Read more...] about Access the Genius Within
How Meditation and Depth Psychology Overlap
I have long been interested in meditation, and I practiced it on and off for many years when I was a young man. Meditation held me together through my neurotic shenanigans, until depth psychology crossed my path and cleaned out the worst of my inner discombobulations. I used to … [Read more...] about How Meditation and Depth Psychology Overlap
Guilt: A Favorite Way to Suffer
Is guilt our favorite way to suffer? I think it is. Shame, fear, and anxiety might be more intense as torments go, but guilt (life’s “fitful fever”—Shakespeare) is the emotional hotspot that flares up most frequently in the backwoods of human nature. And it doesn’t take … [Read more...] about Guilt: A Favorite Way to Suffer