“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” — Old Proverb — Opening Thoughts When I first heard the above proverb a few years ago, it washed right over me like rain water over a giant, protective umbrella. The second time someone reflected this quote to me, it impacted me a little more than before, akin to being caught in a heavy rain with…

Interwoven with an exploration of denial, ignorance and naïveté — a cross-examination of Buddhist teachings and psychodynamic theory — Opening Thoughts I’ve been pondering a lot about the differences between denial, ignorance and naiveté, and how media popularization of the term “woke” in the last couple of years has, at least for me, undermined and downplayed my understanding and desire to understand some very complex, urgent and critical issues.

There is a part of me that has laid dormant all of my life. Rare glimpses of her revealed in fragments throughout my past but there was never enough to sustain a prolongated stay. This year, she has emerged — fully — burst out of a buried cave, shy and…

A reflection of my feelings and experiences growing up in a predominantly white society and some of the insights and illuminations I’ve only recently come to understand and accept — “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” — Friedrich Nietzsche Race is one of those seemingly-impossible-to-talk-about topics where one or both parties — especially between people of different races — eventually grow defensive and give up in defeat. Regardless of whether we’re…

A brief(ish) overview of Freud’s theory of sexuality (including the Oedipal complex), structural theory and dreams theory. — Perhaps no other man has had as much singular intellectual impact and influence on a field and the paradigmatic thinking of a society than Sigmund Freud. …

A psychodynamic perspective of how our unconscious collective fears may bring about our eventual demise. — Once upon a time, there lived a king named Erysichthon, who ruled over Thessaly. This king was as arrogant as his daughter was wise, and one day, without her consent, he rallied his subjects to desecrate the sacred grove of Demeter (Ceres) — the Goddess of Plenty, the Goddess of…

In 2019, I devoted much of my time to writing and becoming a writer. …

Our cat, Eleven, used to meow at us incessantly during the hour leading up to her morning and evening feedings. As a mindfulness and meditation practitioner, this rarely bothered me. When it did, I’d try to notice it and observe it for what it was, without categorizing, just letting the…

My first and only imaginary friend appeared to me when I was eleven years old. His name was Jamie, and he was about five years younger than me. When I finally found the courage to tell my best friend about it in the form of a half-joke, to see how…