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The Diffusion Of Responsibility

Photo: simminch

Once while I was jogging along Lake Michigan, I came upon a large crowd surrounding a middle-aged man lying supine on the ground.  I stopped to assess the scene and saw the man wasn’t moving—at all.  Two people were bending over him and trying to shake him awake.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He fell,” [...]

Dependent Origination

Photo: ctsnow

The other week while my wife and I were out jogging we watched a couple in front of us walk across the street against a red light, blissfully unconcerned as two cars had to screech to a halt in front of them.  To our amazement, the couple continued on without even a [...]

The Difference Between Easy And Difficult

After meeting with an attending physician in a Physical Diagnosis class when I was a second-year medical student, I remember thinking how impossible it seemed that my brain would ever contain as much medical knowledge as his.  And even if somehow one day it did, how would I ever be able to call on it, [...]

The Six Reasons People Attempt Suicide

Though I’ve never lost a friend or family member to suicide, I have lost a patient (who I wrote about in a previous post, The True Cause Of Depression).  I have known a number of people left behind by the suicide of someone close to them, however.  Given how much losing [...]

You Can Always Do More

A few weeks ago, a colleague and I were discussing the devastation in Haiti.  He told me he thought he should go down there to help out—but that he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.  His heart went out to the people suffering there, he said, but apparently not enough to get him to [...]

How World Peace Is Possible

Photo: Jayel Aheram

When I was in grammar school learning about World War II, I remember thinking how grateful I was that society had finally matured to the point in the intervening years that war no longer ever broke out.   Today I can hardly remember what bizarre thought process led me to conclude that [...]

Breaking Free Of The Past

Photo: Leonidas Tsementzis

As I wrote in an earlier post, The True Cause Of Cruelty, for me seventh grade was a disaster.  I was persecuted by anti-Semites and so traumatized that my parents endured owning two houses at once for six months in order to get me into a new school.  I left seventh [...]

How To Decide What Risks Are Worth Taking

Photo: nutmeg

Life continuously presents us with difficult choices.  Do we start our own business or stay in our (relatively) safe job?  Do we absorb the high cost of health insurance or risk going uncovered because we’re healthy now?  Do we get the screening colonoscopy?  Do we get married?  Do we have children?  Do [...]

In Search Of The Mythical

Photo: ogimogi

Mr. Sikes (not his real name) came to me complaining of swelling of his ankles (worse as the day wore on), shortness of breath climbing half a flight of stairs, and sudden awakening in the middle of the night from shortness of breath that resolved after several minutes of sitting upright.  I [...]

An Explanation Of Karma

Photo: poeloq

Few concepts are as misunderstood or difficult to define as the concept of karma.  Like love and happiness, it seems to mean something different to everyone, even as most would probably agree it has something to do with the principles of destiny, fate, predeterminism, and even reincarnation.  If we define karma according [...]