Each year, the church where I am organist takes one Sunday to celebrate music. Yesterday was Celebration of Music Sunday, and in a coincidence. Yesterday was our annual Celebration of Music (and happy mother’s day!), and in a striking coincidence, yesterday I happened on a fascinating article about — singing. Singing has been studied from […]
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Breathe Normally
In recent decades, more and more empirical studies have established the benefits of breathing. It may be hard to believe that something we do anyway can become a powerful tool for improving well-being, but that’s exactly the conclusion of many studies. For instance, a 2021 study in India involved teaching healthcare providers “SKY” (Sudarshan Kriya […]
Continue ReadingWhat’s wrong with lifelong learning?
A tale of two grannies We like to talk about lifelong learning, and a lot of what we say — aspirational though it may be — leaves out the important part, which also happens to be the hard part. My two grannies illustrate this tendency: They were both “lifelong learners,” but what their love of […]
Continue ReadingConfession of a Rational Animal
There’s a lot to appreciate about Aristotle’s definition of our species as rational animal. We are animals with the capacity for reason — including the all-important ability to guide our decisions and behavior through the exercise of reason. I’ve devoted much of my life to practical reason and the pursuit of excellences that enrich our […]
Continue ReadingA tale of two criteria
One of the great things about living in our time is . . . the silicone baking mat. This is a magnificent piece of technology, and if you have even a passing interest in using an oven, you should have at least one. But once you have one (or two or three), you’ll confront the […]
Continue ReadingAnniversary
Those of you who follow my blog know that I took a week off from posting. I’m a philosopher, so it definitely was not because I didn’t have anything to say. 😉 Actually, I was celebrating a significant anniversary of excellencifying: This past Sunday was my 36th anniversary as principal organist at a local Lutheran […]
Continue ReadingManaging Reason Fatigue
There have been a number of articles in the news about the growing anger of vaccinated people at the unvaccinated, confrontations about masks and social distancing, and of course, plenty of expert advice that shaming, scorn, and insults do not generally move people to be “responsible.” Behind all this lies what I call “reason fatigue”: […]
Continue ReadingRumors of excellence
I’ve been thinking about excellence for a long time, and one aspect of this rumination has been listening to the way people think and talk about excellence. It seems we have two common perspectives on excellence, and each of them miss something essential about striving for excellence — what I call excellencifying. It’s hardly a […]
Continue ReadingPronouns
You’ve probably seen a “preferred pronouns” notice in people’s email signatures and elsewhere. This practice is a frequent topic of conversation, and I’m often asked questions like, Is it a fad? or What’s wrong with pronouns the way they are? What’s the big deal? Aristotle rightly pointed out that, of all the ways we interact […]
Continue ReadingKant Got This Right
As I often say, the mistakes of a great philosopher are worth the philosopher’s weight in gold. Kant said plenty of things to object to, but one thing Kant got right is that we can’t get free will and the laws of nature to play nicely together (at least not the current laws of nature […]
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