Fourth of July is a time when Americans make a big deal about our freedoms. Freedom of religion, freedom of expression. Self-rule and freedom from oppression. Freedom of movement and career choice. Freedom to stockpile and use lethal weapons on one another. You’d think America would rank pretty high as a free and happy society.

But in reality, ( Read more... )

First, two operative assumptions:

Every human being experiences some degree of suffering during their lives.

Every human being wants their suffering to be heard and met with compassion.

Given those two truths, the logical inference is that all compassion comes from beings who are experiencing suffering of their own.

Think about that for a ( Read more... )

For decades, I kept a fixed list of my three necessities of life. It was a nice, simple, straightforward list. Easy to remember, easy to communicate, and unchanging.

However, a couple years ago I added catness to the list, expanding to ( Read more... )