The Unclad Soul

I am mourning our country. Not the sham that is our politics. That stuff infuriates not saddens me. Not the pathetic Donald Trump. His dysfunction is real and alarming but he’s not the source of my grief. Not Hillary Clinton with her chameleon masks, her endlessly lavish suits, and her highbrow ownership of the Democratic Party. What a disappoint she has turned out to be. But I don’t weep over her. Not the professionally and morally bankrupt media either. Their selling out, their cowardice, their trivial pursuits drive me to scorn but not sorrow. No, I mourn for the real people in this country who desperately need a reliable government. I mourn for our veterans sent off to missions of disgrace and outrage only to return to us maimed, ruined, and dead. And all of that for lost causes and dishonest hype and the gluttony of a fraudulent Congress. I mourn for the poor, the homeless, the addicted, the disabled, and all Americans whose lives are daily embarrassed from lack of resour...

“Our culture has filled our heads but emptied our hearts, stuffed our wallets but starved our wonder. It has fed our thirst for facts but not for meaning or mystery.”   ―   Peter Kreeft ,   Philosophy Professor/Boston College

Care of the Soul Don’t ignore or repress your complexes, instead try to befriend them By Thomas Moore 2016 March/April Issue: Spirituality & Health When it comes to dieting, my willpower buckles when I’m faced with mashed potatoes and gravy. I may have just read a book on eating only green veggies, and I’ve resolved to go the Spartan route, but I can’t pass up the basic food that I associate with my mother and grandmother and cozy dinners with beloved family members in my childhood. It probably doesn’t help that I left home at an early age for a boarding school. My diet problem is not so much that I lack the willpower but that my “Warm Irish-American Family” complex is so strong and deeply planted in me. A psychological complex is a set of emotions, memories, anxieties, desires, and habits focused around a theme—my need for family comfort, for example—that urges a person in a certain direction that may or may not fit his or her conscious and rational purposes. For ...

“Beyond work and love, I would add two other ingredients that give meaning to life. First, to fulfill whatever talents we are born with. However blessed we are by fate with different abilities and strengths, we should try to develop them to the fullest, rather than allow them to atrophy and decay. We all know individuals who did not fulfill the promise they showed in childhood. Many of them became haunted by the image of what they might have become. Instead of blaming fate, I think we should accept ourselves as we are and try to fulfill whatever dreams are within our capability. Second, we should try to leave the world a better place than when we entered it. As individuals, we can make a difference, whether it is to probe the secrets of Nature, to clean up the environment and work for peace and social justice, or to nurture the inquisitive, vibrant spirit of the young by being a mentor and a guide.”   ―   Michio Kaku, Theoretical Theorist/Scientist