Posts from Philosophy

There’s a lot of stress in the world lately.  I feel it.  My family feels it.  My friends and colleagues feel it.  This Corona virus quarantine has been an isolating experience for nearly everyone, and it often feels like the stress of the situation is increasingly magnified by our feelings of isolation within it.  Isolation feeds the stress, stress feeds the isolation, and we spiral down the existential toilet bowl.  But being free to make our own choices within our circumstances hasn’t changed, and I think several philosophers living in WWII Europe wrestled with a similar question in the midst of a world also in turmoil.  I believe they have a lot to teach us about freedom, choices, anxiety, and authenticity that can help us maintain a healthy version of our selves in this time of high and wide uncertainty. read more

I reread “Laches” by Plato while I was on the treadmill today.  I know: I’m a middle aged philosophy nerd.  My undergrad degree is in philosophy, I still read in the subject.

“Laches” is a shortish work, about a 40 minute read.  It’s a dramatic dialog Plato wrote between five characters wherein two men raise the topic of “how should we educate our two sons, how do we teach them the things we never learned growing up?”.  Philosophy strikes many as some nerdy chitter chatter limited to either idealistic college freshmen or “ivory tower” professors.  But I firmly believe philosophy has a lot to teach us.  Many of the questions about life we’ve all been asking haven’t changed much in 2500 years. Our need to understand who we are and why we’re here and how to live a meaningful, fulfilling life hasn’t changed.  The answers, honestly, haven’t changed that much either. read more

I started this blog several years ago after the sale of my previous company. It was a pleasant side interest for me to write about foods I like to cook, beers I like to make, random thoughts about life that crossed my mind while I was grilling. Grilling is like therapy for me (but much cheaper). The activity keeps my hands busy, takes off the surface static off my mind, allows me the occasional deeper thinking. So this site because a place where I thought I could share some of those thoughts and some of those things that make me happy. read more