Something happened to me coming home from Malaysia. On my flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo, a skinny American gal with long straight black hair and big round glasses sat down next to me. She looked like a character from anime, so it didn’t surprise me when a moppy-haired Japanese…
It was my last night in Malaysia, on the way back from dinner. I stopped to get some fruit and a fresh coconut across the street from the hotel. While waiting for the salesman to harvest it for me, I couldn’t help but notice the contrast. To my left was…
A few days ago, I saw a troop of monkeys meandering through the resort where I was staying in Langkawi. The resort was rather isolated and the food wasn’t super, but there were monkeys all over the grounds, and they weren’t afraid of us humans. Once in a while, I…
I entered the dermatologist’s office with mild trepidation, having never had a total-body skin check before. Like many professional women here in Malaysia, the doctor was wearing a beige head covering, a tudong (Malay word for “cover”) with a matching jilbab (a long and loose-fit coat or outer garment). Her…
I was looking into media psychology when my research led me to James F. Tracy, an ex-tenured Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Florida Atlantic University. He was fired in 2016 after accusing the government of hiring crisis actors for an incident that he didn’t think was real….
ew men have imagination enough for reality. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe When a majority rules, it feels like their beliefs and perceptions are grounded in facts and based on reality. But they are actually based on artificial constructs, on missing information, on things we don’t know and cannot see, on…
Merry Christmas! Today we celebrate a birthday in Bethlehem during the reign of King Herod. According to Matthew 2:1, some wise men from eastern lands arrived asking about the newborn king. They had seen his star and came to worship him. King Herod and everyone in Jerusalem was “deeply disturbed”…
“Passion is energy,” said Oprah Winfrey. “Feel the power from focusing on what excites you.” This quote not only epitomizes the West, but highlights the privilege that all Americans have experienced since the dollar has been the world reserve currency. I mean, we can afford to focus on our passion,…
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. — Thomas Jefferson, 1749-1826, American President [1801-1809] While intelligence is necessary for survival, ignorance (the willful kind) is an art of living. Deep within our beliefs, ignorance is rejection of reality that doesn’t…
Remember Fleetwood Mac’s 1980s pop hit? Tell me lies, Tell me sweet little lies (Tell me lies, tell me, tell me lies), Oh no, no you can’t disguise. If you still think inflation is transitory, then you might also think it will soon rain enough in the Sahara to generate…
“Outstanding, sophisticated, and mesmerizing…a spiritual intrigue similar to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.” —ForeWord Reviews