It’s that time of year again when many in the media unveil their predictions for the upcoming year. Occasionally, they’ll even review their predictions from the previous year and rate themselves on how accurate they were. They ask experts for predictions covering everything from AI to war to politics to the economy to the stock…
Altered States
Lately there many podcasts, articles, celebrities and books talking about people’s experiences tripping on magic mushrooms. Joe Rogan is a big fan of mushrooms who speaks frequently about tripping and has guests who promote them for everything from depression to traumatic brain injury on his podcast. Michael Pollen wrote “How To Change Your Mind” about…
Little Blue Pill
Two of my friends who are my age who were in relationships with younger women. When I was doing my dating app experiment two years ago, both suggested that I get a prescription for Viagra. In private conversations, each told me how it helped them and also eliminated their performance anxieties. I didn’t have any…
Autonomy vs. Safety
This is my second post inspired by reading the book, “Being Mortal”. The author researched long-term care facility practices, spoke to adult children who were placing their parents in them, heard stories from other children who cared for their elderly parent at home and spoke to the parents themselves. The primary goal of the adult…
Purging My Subconscious
I woke the other night from one of my recurring nightmares. I have had recurring nightmares throughout my life starting when I was 5 years old. The contents have varied, depending on what stage of life I was in and what I was dealing with. But the commonalities include a lack of control, fear of…
23 Minutes A Day
I listened to a podcast last week where the host recapped how she performed with her 2023 New Year’s Resolutions. One of her resolutions was to get outside, every day, for at least 23 minutes. (Get it – 23 minutes a day in 2023…please, gag me). Anyway, she was proud that she accomplished this except…
Being Mortal
On the recommendation of a podcast, I just finished reading “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” by Atul Gawande. It’s a book full of sad stories about aging, frailty, health and dying in the US. The stories about physicians extending life, at whatever cost and for however briefly, while not considering the…
Purging Again
Yesterday I did a big purge of my stuff. But purging for me is not just useful for things I own. It is something I do with family, friends, relationships, digital data, activities and even now, even memories. When I have too much of anything – especially when it doesn’t spark joy, it becomes a…
Cleaning Out My Closet
Yesterday morning I had an epiphany while thinking about some “perfectly good” stuff I owned that was that I hadn’t used in more than 2 years. If I didn’t use it, then it wasn’t perfectly good for me – but it could be perfectly good for someone else. And so, I spent the entire afternoon…
Putting Yourself Out Of A Job
When I was 21, I worked as a unit clerk for a Nursing Home. It was a terrible fit for me, but it paid better than any other job I could get at the time. As the newest employee on the team, I did not have a dedicated shift. Instead, I filled in whenever they…