Autonomy and Life

A life of your own design

Medium, where words matter.

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Published Articles

For further insight, study and understanding of my unique philosophy, I have also placed numerous articles on the self-publishing site, Medium. I am pleased to say that the site’s curators have designated me a “Top writer in Education” and recommended many of these articles to readers interested in the areas of Philosophy, Self, Education and Relationships.

Each article is meant to bring helpful insight and Information toward developing your mastery of self-possession.

For access to the full content of each article please click Read More at the end of each piece.

Revealing the Means to Living an Original, Creative and Examined Life

Living the examined life is not so easy. To be an original, to create a life of your own design, to parse, weight and scale where and how you can best contribute is not so easy. To write your own marching orders, to look and ponder, to surmise and re-evaluate is not so easy. Whether you’ve always had in mind this intention — and even see it as an obligation or, startled, realized that too much of your life “just happened,” there’s much to think about, plan for and do.

How to Deal with the Indefatigable Invisible Self

We’re in the world as authors and authorities intent on taking our lives to the next level. We can experiment with possibilities that benefit our unique intellectual and moral commitments and our one-of-a-kind natures. But we’re also in the world in just the way that we are, up and running, defined, often on autopilot.

Let's Talk About Love

Love is fulfilling. Yet what it inspires in us is not an antecedent truth born of nature and culture but the creative excitement of who we may become. It is a splendor. A receptivity. An attending to. A bond. A promise.

We don’t measure love’s quality scientifically. We see it, and feel it and identify with it. Love may even be smart. It adds to mind the expected information from our feelings and thoughts. It also seeks a connection, an exploration and an expansion of the knowledge that would forward us into our own becoming.

The Unique Challenge of Building a Life of Substance

Strength of character is not innate. It’s not something that life just naturally provides. It’s won. The hard way. To be taken seriously, to be in control of our heart, our mind, our words and deeds—to be substantive—takes work. A lot of work as we learn to “get over” ourselves, over the petty and stingy and over immature emotional dependencies and failures of nerve.

How to Be at Home in the World

See a Bigger Picture

The art and literature of our narrative traditions have for millennia depicted life as a spiritual struggle that none can escape. Resistance is futile. Hurt and pain and loss mark the journey.

That life is a struggle is obvious. For beasts and birds and fish alike, it’s a do-or-die, take-no-prisoners situation from day one. But the rest—the struggle to elevate ourselves—is a human creation. It is human beings who give life lofty purpose, who deem it a heartful quest, who honor

In Charge and Autonomous

How to Master Self-Possession

In America we are expected to be in charge of ourselves, each an autonomous individual. The promise of achieving our nation depends on our autonomous behavior. Nonetheless, it’s not easy for us to get up to speed when it comes to self-possession. Why? Because autonomy requires us to be in charge of ourselves—in charge of our performative behavior and our subjective ups and downs—all the time. Key to such mastery is the depth and reach of our autonomy.

Creating a Life of Inner Mastery and Peace of Mind

Meaning. Connection. Contribution. Total peace of mind. Saying “yes” to such a life and “yes” to learning its truths; leaning into love and kindness; cherishing authenticity and the magnanimity that enlightens our perceptions and judgments, we bring to bear an environment of significance, joy and acceptance that nurtures those who depend on us and presses to the fore the possibility of redemption, reconciliation and reciprocity.

How to Create Affinity and Affection Despite the Inevitable Clash of Wills

We are a complex mixture of needs and desires, and we don’t like them foiled! We have hopes and a sense of how life should be. Even if they’re not fully articulated, we are disappointed, irritated or infuriated when someone, or the situation as we had imagined it playing out, doesn’t measure up.

Addressing Your Existential Angst With a New Governing Philosophy

Each of us believes that our anxieties are privately and uniquely formed in the substance of our mind. However, in fact, they are caused to appear, for better or for worse, by our systemic realities.

Strong and anxious feelings accompany everyday life. When they’re driving us up the wall, they’re often described negatively. But these tense, pressured feelings can also be described positively—as biology intruding upon inertia.

How to Create a Personally Rewarding Life

Fighting the Good Fight

Perhaps there was a time when we thought that a beginner’s mind was possible. Drawing on our thinking skills, we could empty our mind. Shed the chains of bad habit. Get ahead of the rails we ride. Listen up. And approach new ideas without preconceptions.

But soon enough we discover the great mass of intelligence that keeps us humming can’t easily be set aside. We know too much about biology, history and language. As such, we’re already in deep, real deep.

Do You Know What Makes You Tick?

It’s interesting to discover when we’re looking to know ourselves — to know what makes us tick, so to speak — that we often find our “answers” when we look at ourselves as one among many. Yes, each of us is unique. Yet all of us are here. Set down.

Made. What do I mean by “made?”

How to Make the Most of Being an American

A Practical Philosophy of Freedom, Solidarity and Responsibility

We Americans are often “up in arms,” extremely upset or indignant. We jump on bandwagons, take sides, use social media to find people as angry as we are, blame our problems on the agitation and may adopt a belligerent, aggressive jingoistic stance. This has been true ever since America started to be America.

How to Create a Profound and Striking Change in Direction

In these times, unsure about how the future will play out, it’s essential that we look beyond our certainties for what constitutes a substantive life. Aren’t we looking for a “bigger truth” that will give meaning, purpose and hope to our lives and strengthen our ability to provide leadership for those who depend on us?