How ethically intelligent are you? Take the following quiz, and then I’ll discuss the subject. 1. You take your 12 year old to the movies. At the box office, you see a sign that says: “Children up to 11: $6.00. Adults: $12.00.” The movie theater’s management thus considers your son to be an adult. What […]
Have you ever wondered why we have the tendency to ignore or deny truths until they overwhelm us? Whether it involves charges leveled at the Catholic Church for the behavior of some of their priests and bishops, or the question about why ordinary Germans didn’t stop Hitler from atrocities against mankind, or how Bernie Madoff […]
Quick. Think for a moment. How much well-being do you feel at this juncture of your life? Would you say that you are flourishing in certain aspects of your life? Which ones? Felicia Huppert and Timothy So of the University of Cambridge define flourishing as having: 1) positive emotions, 2) engagement/deep interest in something, 3) […]
Dear Neil: I am 24 years old, single and alone. I have found myself withdrawing from other people because I feel this profound sense of aloneness and loneliness, and I can’t shake this feeling of isolation. Is there a cure for loneliness? Lonely in New Mexico Dear New Mexico: Loneliness begins with you feeling alienated […]
Note: This is the second of a two-part series. Click here for part one Here are a series of questions designed to assist you in evaluating how you feel about your mother. These questions come courtesy of Jasmin Lee Cori in her book The Emotionally Absent Mother (The Experiment Publications). Even if your mother is no […]
Note: This is the first of a two-part series. Click here for part two Dear Neil: My issue is to try to understand the negative feelings I have toward my mother and how to best let them go. I constantly find myself annoyed with anything she suggests. Often she begins with “you should,” which immediately […]
Dear Neil: I grew up believing I had to be strong. I had a difficult childhood and grew up really fast. I never received the nurturance I needed, but I often took care of other family members. I believed I was very strong, but now I realize I am very guarded. I survived my childhood […]
What am I grateful for? It’s a funny subject for me to choose to write about. Three months ago, I lost my home in a forest fire—and with it just about everything I own. So why in the world would I choose to write on what I’m grateful for when I have so much to […]
Dear Neil: I lost my beautiful 18 year old daughter two years ago. She was killed in a car accident. I find myself increasingly more and more bitter as the months and years go by. I know my life will never be the same, but I am unprepared at how overwhelmed I continue to be […]
It’s an awkward position. I’m a relationship columnist, but I find myself wanting to write about the loss of my house through a recent forest fire. That fire not only destroyed my house, but the houses of 168 other of my mountain neighbors, including 10 of my most immediate neighbors. The events since the fire […]