Taking Stock of Your Life in Short Text Messages

Taking Stock of Your Life

Few amongst us take stock of our lives regularly, if ever. But, there are those occasions when life forces us to rethink and re-evaluate where we have come from, and where we are heading. These are significant, pivotal moments when drastic changes compel us to take a few moments in thought and see the forest for the trees. Wouldn’t it be better if we were asking ourselves these questions and answering them honestly when there wasn’t a proverbial gun held to our heads? I think so, and I wanted to share with you one of the ways I do it.

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What is Truth?

What is Truth - painting - Merson

Is there such a thing as truth? A very complex question if you really think about it, and quite impossible to answer without trying to define what truth is. Ask a random group of friends the question “What is Truth?“, and you will be greeted by a variety of replies ranging from blank stares, to utter confusion, to concerned queries about your love life. After all, the truth is just the truth and that’s all there is to it.

A Question

I have always wanted this site to be a conversation rather than a lecture. I’m happy to say it has worked out quite successfully so far, with many people asking me questions through the comments and the contact form. Mostly it’s practical advice on photography, cameras, design etc., and it’s often something that requires a personal reply. But sometimes it gets more esoteric, and of more universal interest. A few days ago Paul J. Richardson left me this doozy:

Most formulations of shareable “knowledge” since Plato’s original JTB definition, are just knit-pickn refinements – ignoring of course, magical and illogical ones, such as implantation by God(s). How can we avoid circular reference back to knowledge when ‘proving’ (arguing) that truth exists or is possible?

Thanks for the question, Paul. I had to mull over this for quite long before deciding on how to answer it, so here goes.

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A Better Definition of Holistic Health

Definition of Holistic HealthThe problem with definitions is that they mean less and less with every new one invented. This is especially true for nebulous terms such as holistic health. It is not an insubstantial concept, but it is very difficult to describe. The other problem with definitions is that they mostly end up being descriptions, and some descriptions of things are just not very helpful. You could describe a desert as a large land area of sand. That might serve as a fitting definition, but would it give you any actual understanding or insight into what a desert really is? Probably not. Description without insight is hollow and academic, which is why we need to find a better definition of holistic health.

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Spring Fling Creativity

Spring Fling Creativity

Go forth and have an affair to remember. I’m not advocating promiscuity in your relationships, but rather in your creativity and your ideas. The good thing is that ideas don’t have feelings that can be hurt, or self esteems that can be crushed. Your mixing it up a bit with your ideas is not going to make you a bad person, just a more creative one.

In a few more days we will be at the vernal equinox. Spring is here, and in this age of global warming, you might as well take advantage of the weather to have a summer fling a little early. A spring fling with a new idea is the perfect way to kick start your creativity and be happier in the process.

Why is it then that so few of us take this plunge into a whirlwind romance? There are usually three reasons we get stuck in a rut when it comes to ideas:
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Delhi-6 – movie review

Abhishek Bachchan in Delhi-6 The Journey Within

All good art reintroduces you to a part of your humanity. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra‘s Delhi-6 does just that, many times over during its running time. Starring Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Rishi Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Deepak Dobriyal, Prem Chopra, Vijay Raaz, Pavan Malhotra, Supriya Pathak, Om Puri, Sheeba Chaddha, K.K. Raina, Aditi Rao, and Cyrus Sahukar, it is an energetic tale of urban India with a mythic quality usually assigned to stories of a much more ancient variety. Roshan(Abhishek Bachchan), a fairly Americanised young man whose parents moved there decades ago, is unexpectedly thrown back into a small locality of old Delhi when he offers to bring his ailing Grandmother(Waheeda Rehman) back to India; She wishes to die there. What follows is an intricate study of humanity, of a small slice of India, how it affects Roshan, and how he affects it.

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How to Survive School With Your Beliefs

Saraswati -Goddess of Knowledge - by Raja Ravi VarmaI received an interesting comment recently, on my post about cynicism in the environmental movement. Not just a comment but also a question about learning and facing situations where we are forced to learn against our beliefs. Like all good questions it was simply not possible to dismiss it with a short answer in the comment thread, so it gets its own post. The comment I got was this:

I’m joseph and 14 years old. And I NEVER belived once in global warming. But I hate it that my science teacher is theaching us global warming. I don’t realy want to particapate in it, but if I dont, I just might fail this class. And I don’t want that. what am i gonna do?

And what follows is my reply to Joseph, and the little bit of Joseph in all of us.

Dear Joseph,

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Anatomy of a Distracted Morning

Sirens - painting by Leon BellyThis morning I was up bright and early with a spring in my step and a purpose in my heart. While I slowly woke up in bed, I had decided that today I would shun all distractions and write like there was no tomorrow. A few hours of concentrated effort could easily earn me an article or three for my blog, and then I could go back to unfocused endeavours without as much guilt.

After making sure I was within the legal limit of sleepiness for operating a piece of computer equipment, I sat at my desk and opened up my note book (the real life dead tree one that I write my ideas in). Sure enough there were a good handful of article ideas, at least a couple of which I could tackle without too much research or other preliminaries.

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