Its a Mean Old World

Where Do We START To make the World a Better Place?

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there."

— Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)

Wall Street Protests Are Growing

"Men., it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

- Charles Mackay
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Ellen J. Langer: Beginner's Mindful Learning

Sit down before facts like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion.  Follow humbly whatever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
- T.H. Huxley

Ellen Langer has come to my attention lately and I am immersing myself in her books to understand her scientific findings that are different from the mindfulness of Jon Kabat-Zinn and the Buddhists.  She impresses me as offering something of more everyday value for dealing with premature cognitive commitment, i.e. prejudice.

Stay tuned for more information about this interesting member of the psychology department at Harvard University.