A man who is not afraid of the sea
will soon be drowned, he said,
for he will be going out on a day he shouldn't.
But we do be afraid of the sea,
and we do only be drownded now and again.
~John Millington Synge

Don't ask what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive
and then go do that.
Because what the world needs
is people who have come alive.
--Howard Thurman, civil rights leader

If you want to build a ship,
don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the wood and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn
for the vast and endless sea.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

OK, maybe that's a little exaggerated, but basically any drug causes a dopamine surge that changes your brain such that the rewards of normal life don't seem good enough anymore. This study actually found that pot smokers have a bigger nucleus accumbens (the brain area associated with pleasure, reward, and reinforcement learning). They say that ( Read more... )