If you call your daughter "my little petunia," does calling her that make her a flower? No, it doesn't.

If you call your wife "the little woman," does calling her that mean that she is no longer six feet tall in her stockinged feet? No, it doesn't.

If you call...

Why do impoverished working class members of the religious right love a corporate America that scorns them and exploits them? The following parable may help explain a state of affairs that is otherwise inexplicable.

**

JOB INTERVIEW

The young man had no idea that the CEO himself would interview him....

Noimetics is a complete naturalistic philosophy that takes our understanding of our place in the universe into account and that spells out how an individual who is interested in manifesting her potential, making herself proud, and creating daily meaning can do so. Since few people look to be interested in...

In the realms of the philosophies, religions and philosophies of life, just about anything can be said without proof or justification -- and has been said. Certainly there is no stopping this. But that isn't to say we can't ponder what might make for some reasonable standards for a philosophy,...

When our younger daughter came home from college one year, she presented me with a coffee mug. The motto on the coffee mug read: "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

"Isn't that your philosophy in a nutshell?" she laughed. She was exactly right.

I...

"Just being" is just fine -- some of the time.

There is a vast difference between "just being" as part of a life proudly lived and "just being" as a complete philosophy of life. As the former, it makes perfect sense. As the latter, it is bankrupt.

It...

If meaning is the new money, as pundits are fond of saying, where is the bank? How do you make a deposit? How do you make a withdrawal? How do you take out a loan?

The old containers of meaning, whether -isms like Stoicism, idealism, or existentialism, eastern religions like...

I've been writing in recent posts about a profound problem: that thinking is not much countenanced in our schools. To deal with this problem, I'm arguing for the introduction of a new 45-minute daily class, the thinking module, where a facilitator encourages students to think by introducing juicy ideas worth...

It may seem absurd that a society should intentionally choose to poorly educate its children.

Yet there is a strong pull in our culture to do just that. The reason is a straightforward one. Most people do not want children to think. They want children to get good grades,...

If your intention is to have students manifest their potential, you need to do more than stuff their heads with facts on the one hand, or provide them with unstructured freedom on the other. You need to provide students with appropriate guidance that motivates them to think and motivates them...

In my last post I explained that there is a world of difference between unproductive obsessions rooted in anxiety and productive obsessions that arise from our meaning-making needs. The first are an abomination; the second are the brain's glory. Today let's look at some criteria for choosing your productive obsession.

In working with clients as a family therapist, creativity coach and meaning coach I began to see the following recurring pattern: clients would quickly lose interest in activities, projects, relationships and careers that they had started with great enthusiasm. They would even lose interest in solving the pressing problems that...