As many know, educational systems in Cambodia were systematically destroyed and repressed during the Khmer Rouge regime, which controlled the country in the mid-to-late 1970s. Book burnings and the targeting of teachers in the ensuing widespread, tragic genocide were just two by-products of the turmoil in Cambodia.

While the...

It's not that difficult to think of sugar as a habit, or even a minor pleasurable addiction. Anyone who has ever craved a chocolate cake -- or, in the case of me as I write this, a blueberry smoothie -- knows that the craving of sugar can be highly irritating...

"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
-Pablo Picasso

When is the last time you painted, wrote a poem, played the piano? For too many of us, the answer is, "I don't remember." But why don't we engage in the...

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

It's easy to think of works of art as direct descendents of their maker. We look at "The Starry Night" and we think of van Gogh,...

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

When we receive a postcard, we're receiving a piece of someone else's recent past: a photo and some text, sometimes from exciting places, mostly sharing ordinary...

In Greek mythology, Athena is commonly known the goddess of wisdom, often associated with the qualities of courage and inspiration. More than that, Athena serves as a patron of sorts to many disciplines, ranging from the arts to just warfare. Heroic in nature, Athena could even be considered the original...

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

Stalin, Draper, Caulfield, Salander. No, it's not the latest name of Mad Men's pivotal ad agency. It's part of a list of people one could classify...

Like most of us, I would call myself busy. As in, very busy. And, like most of us, I've often found myself struggling to balance my work, my personal life, and bodily health with varying degrees of success.

Dr. Jim Nicolai gets it. An integrative wellness specialist at

"In a world marked by tension between individual and community, how then shall we live?" This bit of wisdom-tinged rhetoric, drawn from Leo Tolstoy, is one of the guideposts for study at my alma mater, Holy Cross.

Tolstoy's words have served to inspire me since I graduated and throughout my...

I wonder how much time on average artists spend trying to be good at something else other than what they are destined to do? How many lawyers are out there with screenplays stashed in their drawers? How many plumbers with a talent for the piano? I'm sure some spend months,...

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

Babies are true geniuses.

And, if you think about it, you'll see that humans in general are therefore geniuses. After all, we come into the world...

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

It takes almost no effort to make a child believe in Santa Claus. Step one? Put some presents under a Christmas tree every year. Step two?...

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell challenges the belief that some people are born under a lucky star and somewhat dismisses the idea of prodigy. Instead, he asserts that an individual driven by disciplined commitment to practice (10,000 hours), within the context of right time and place, can lead to...

For centuries, music has been one of society's most powerful ways that people share stories and ideas that create bonds while transcending geographic, personal or economic boundaries. However, in a time when our increasingly connected world has muted those limitations, new possibilities have emerged in ways that can change the...

It's no secret that music has a unique way of unifying people across cultures, geographies and communities. It takes exceptional artists and performers to build those stories to which many can relate. Nick Africano, whose music blends folk, soul, storytelling and rock, does just that -- his soulful...

"Tell the world through your art where you were raised and tell it in dialect." -- Walter Parks

American, Southern, uplifting, funky, gnarly, rootsy, loud, poetic and honest. In five to 10 words, that's how Walter Parks described his musical style to me.

But don't mistake his honesty...

Attending this past June's TEDGlobal 2012 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland was a lifetime highlight -- a week that satiated my cultural and intellectual curiosity. It also transformed numerous personal perspectives on how we, as humans, are both mindfully and not-so-mindfully using the power of open information to benefit...

At the end of June, I am headed to TED Global in Edinburgh, Scotland, a likely personal highlight for 2012. My involvement with TED, though, began at the local level in New York City. This time last year I was looking forward to attending my third TEDxEast event,...

I have been an ardent reader and devoted lover of historical fiction for decades. And, while many authors can marry the nuances of fact and fiction, few -- in my opinion -- can blend it in a way where the reader wants to be involved from the very beginning.

Sarah...

There aren't many feelings more frustrating than writer's block. What can be more discouraging than feeling like you have absolutely nothing to say? The longer it goes on, the worse it gets. For any kind of writer -- even those writing business e-mails -- writer's block is inevitable.

Next time...