“One cannot attain a life free of anxiety if one is too concerned about prolonging it.” Seneca, Letter 4.4. I was doing my morning reading, which today was from Seneca's Letters on Ethics, when I came across the quote above. I figured I would share what came to mind with my community. Why do we … Continue reading Don’t Become So Preoccupied With Your Life That You Forget to Live It
Author: Edward Ortiz
Leadership Lessons for Bloggers and Beyond
Some tea this time. 😀 What an election night! I know the votes are still being counted, but it’s clear that the country wants to move in a new and better direction. We’ll see if the new leadership in the U.S. Congress puts its leadership skills into practice for the common good or wastes the … Continue reading Leadership Lessons for Bloggers and Beyond
Existentialism, Coffee, and a Story
Today, I want to share something I found while reading At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell that made my coffee neurons happy. Then, I’ll talk a little bit about a collaboration I did with my blog friend Teagan from Teagan’s Books. Let me start with the existentialist part. No, I’m not turning into an … Continue reading Existentialism, Coffee, and a Story
Book Review: The Twisted Circle
I have been rereading How to Read a Book: A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Adler and Van Doren. This week, I read the chapter on suggestions for reading stories, plays, and poems. While reading the section titled How to Read Stories, the authors discussed the frustration readers sometimes experience when they feel overwhelmed … Continue reading Book Review: The Twisted Circle
Book Review: These Truths – A History of the United States
Reading about our history is fascinating. In How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren, the authors write that “if you want to discover the truth of the past, you had better read several books about it rather than one.” The more you read, the more you fill in the gaps. After all, … Continue reading Book Review: These Truths – A History of the United States
AI and the Human Factor
I was planning to post a book review today, but I’ll probably do that next week. My mind kept bringing me back to the content of three great essays I read over the last couple of weeks. One of those essays used Artificial Intelligence (AI) during the writing process, and it was really good. I … Continue reading AI and the Human Factor
Learning How to Read Again
Back when I was starting this blog, I wrote a short book review of How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. In that post, I mentioned that my first attempt to read the book was in 2009, but I wasn’t ready for it. … Continue reading Learning How to Read Again
Love and Discipline
Lately, I have been reading too many news stories about an old man man exhibiting the following behaviors: frequent temper tantrums, angry outbursts and irritability, argumentativeness and defiance, destruction of property, serious rule violations, arguing with adults or refusing to comply with adults’ rules, being resentful or spiteful, often deliberately annoying others or becoming annoyed … Continue reading Love and Discipline
Three Years in the Blogosphere: Learning, Sharing, and Connecting
Three years ago, I embarked on an interesting journey after retiring from the military. I needed a way to keep my mind engaged after 26-plus years of doing just that on a daily basis. Blogging gave me that outlet. I have stayed very consistent with my blog’s purpose of offering my thoughts about leadership, history, … Continue reading Three Years in the Blogosphere: Learning, Sharing, and Connecting
The Lessons We Keep Forgetting
“Benjamin Franklin was eighty-one years old, hunched and crooked, when he signed the Constitution in 1787, with his gnarled and speckled hand. In 1731, when he was twenty-five, straight as a sapling, he’d written an essay called 'Observations on Reading History,' on a 'little paper, accidentally preserv’d.' And he’d kept reading history, and talking notes, … Continue reading The Lessons We Keep Forgetting
