Merlin: a tribute to a cat I love

July 12, 2024

Merlin was cradled in Julie's arms like a baby while I gently stroked his head and whiskers. I had figured out (through 6 years of trial and error) the way he most enjoyed it. An hour went by this way, and my shoulder ached from the repetitive motion of stroking, but I kept at it because I knew he liked it. He even started to purr. We knew that, at any time, we could push the button on the wall. Then the doctor would enter the room, take out her syringes, and end the life of this cat that ...

Difficult truths that are part of being human

March 5, 2021

Here's my list of difficult truths that are part of being human. We can: A. Lie to ourselves about them, B. Avoid thinking about them, or C. Try to accept the parts we can't change and change what we can. If you're in camps A or B, don't read this post! Here are Thirteen Difficult Truths: 1. Irrationality - we humans are not rational, despite the fact that most of us want to believe we are. Our beliefs and behaviors are influenced by nearly-invisible social for...

The Fourier transform of happiness

October 17, 2020

Photo by Enrapture Captivating Media on Unsplash

H/T to Robert Paul Chase for the title. (For those who don't know, this is a reference to Fourier analysis.) Your happiness, like the level of the ocean, is caused by a superposition of waves of different frequencies. Each operates on a distinct scale - they sum up to determine your well-being at any given point in life. Each wave tends to oscillate around its mean or neutral point (except for the slowest waves, which take your whole life to unfold). One useful way to think about becoming ha...