Happiness in this World » The Big Questions

The Diffusion Of Responsibility

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:00:32 +0000

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

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 30 May 2010 22:00:57 +0000

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

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 16 May 2010 22:00:15 +0000

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

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:45:25 +0000

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

Alex Lickerman — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:58:22 +0000

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 [...]