26 Apr

Posted at 10:43h in Observations

"If you want to live a long life, smoke cigarettes until you're 100." The foregoing, told me more than 40 years ago by my father, is a childish joke. However, it does hint at the relationship between smoking and age. 85% of disease related death is a function of age. Consistent with this proposition, smokers who quit by 40 have a life expectancy of never-smokers. Old age and smoking is what kills us, smoking alone does not. Likewise, death at a young age due to high cholesterol or high blood pressure is very rare but common in the old. The key to a long life is essentially not getting old. To keep from getting old and dying before our time, we need make healthy discretionary choices on matters of sleep, diet, laughter and physical exercise. Alternatively, being young at heart, childish and childlike, will keep us young....

23 Apr

Posted at 10:15h in Observations

A good choice is not identifiable by its outcome but by whether it was a good choice at the time it was made based on, among other things, the probabilities of outcomes we imagine. Determining probabilities based on ex-post outcomes leads to miscalculating ex-ante probabilities which leads to poor choices....

21 Apr

Posted at 23:51h in Observations

In the darkest moments the stars are brightest. If we look up, the stars will guide our way. Looking down, we can lose our way....

20 Apr

Posted at 11:20h in Observations

We're in peace before we are born, one with everything. In peace after we die, one with everything. Peaceful is the time between birth and death when we are one with everything....

19 Apr

Posted at 01:15h in Observations

Those leading the way are generally viewed as knowing the way. Often they too think they know the way. Those so thinking do not know the way of the way. The way of the way is changes; sometimes predictable, sometimes random. As the way changes course, they often lose their way....

16 Apr

Posted at 10:15h in Observations

"My father sees the worst as the best and all he has is only the best." He instinctively goes for the best as he is sensitive to the subtle qualities of the best. As well, he knows the best and the worst as each having their own merits. Best to enjoy on an absolute basis, not relatively, what comes our way. Everything is unique and from some perspective wonderful in its individual beauty. Relative to other seemingly comparable things or to itself over time or from the perspectives of others, nothing is the best but temporarily. Thus, chasing after the best is a fool's errand. Making relative distinctions is funny as it keeps us from enjoying what we have now which is the best relative to nothing....

15 Apr

Posted at 10:15h in Observations

I was recently at a cigar lounge in the Wall Street area in New York and talked with John, a successful businessman. As John is very dark-skinned, conventional people would say John is black. However, to me, such categories as race, religion, nationality, etc. are absurd,  creating commercial and social barriers. Not knowing how John thought about categorizations, I asked him if he is black. He said: "I don't think of myself as black but many people tell me I am." John is certainly not conventional in his thinking and neither are most successful people.  ...

14 Apr

Posted at 10:15h in Observations

Sometimes we find ourselves in stressful situations. That's life. It's then best to not forget that one of the constants of life is change. As such, difficult times will sooner or later be following by better times, as were the times before the stressful situation at hand. Alternatively, we can  reflect on the end of days which puts everything in perspective. From the end of days, however stressful our current situation, we are calmed and grateful to still be alive....

13 Apr

Posted at 12:15h in Observations

Weddings are always the happiest day. For some couples it's the happiest day of their lives, as they begin living happily ever after. For others, it's the happiest day of their married lives as it's all downhill from there....