Kate Ledger’s Remedies will shake you up a bit. [The paperback is coming out August 3rd; hence the renewed recommendation by the St. Paul Pioneer Press yesterday.] [Update 1.11.11: This article is now gone. Go get the book and see for yourself!] Heartbreaking and painful at times, joyous and freeing at times, it whisks you […]
A Compassionate Life
Quotes from Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness by Marc Ian Barasch–a book which takes a look at empathy, altruism, and compassion from all walks of life. If one completes the journey to one’s own heart, one will find oneself in the heart of everyone else. –Father Thomas […]
Happy Can Mean So Many Things
If you follow this blog, you’ll know I’m an avid fan of Speaking of Faith, a radio broadcast/podcast on MPR. Topics range from Buddhism to Christianity to quantum physics. It’s so intriguing. [Update on 1.5.11: Speaking of Faith‘s name has been changed to Being.] Yesterday, I trekked up to Minneapolis to pick up my sister […]
The Samaritan’s Dilemma, Part 2
Is there such a thing as altruism? True altruism? I’m a little farther along in The Samaritan’s Dilemma: Should Government Help Your Neighbor? by Deborah Stone. The chapter I’m reading now is about altruism–does it really exist? Thomas Hobbes (1651) felt that every act of kindness is really just a form of caring for one’s […]