The body of my ex-wife was discovered the day after Thanksgiving. Just days later, a good friend took his own life. Both had struggled, in one way or another, with depression, anxiety, self-loathing - and the heavy drinking that so often comes with such ailments. You're no doubt familiar with these labels, perhaps even suffer[...]

As parents we wonder how best to raise our children. Understandably, we use the very same blueprint we've used for our own lives, encouraging our kids to pursue love, meaning, success, money, security, career, etc. And yet, the lives built by those blueprints are rarely if ever happy ones (certainly not permanently so), are far[...]

In a scene from the screwball comedy, Meatballs, a summer camp counselor played by Bill Murray gives a rousing speech about the futility not just of an upcoming competition with a neighboring rich kids' camp, but of life itself (no matter how hard one tries, shrieks Murray, no matter how much God might be on our[...]

A man appears on the scene - no, scratch that, there have been too many men in this role. A woman appears on the scene. She is a great mystery to her new neighbors, quiet, preternaturally serene, utterly uninterested in the affairs of the world. To the few who encounter her, it is clear that[...]