The Great Growing Up Blog

While one could argue that the gap between Democrats and Republicans in Washington has never been greater than now, they are still very united in what the late Orlando Sentinel columnist Charley Reese (picture courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel) called the “common con.” In his February 3, 1984 column, titled “545 people are responsible for […]

I keep reading and hearing people talk about science as if it all began with the Western model of rational thought in the 18th and 19th centuries when reductionistic science replaced what was then considered false beliefs or witch doctor hokey pokey. The materialistic values of Europe overran generations of less-materialistic practices making them seem […]

As a longtime meditator, I often found some difficulty, especially in the early days, in quieting my mind. It seemed so unnatural and difficult to attain a state where there were no thoughts buzzing around inside my head. What I have discovered over the years is that the more practiced I became at meditation – […]

Over the past several years I’ve noticed a significant upturn in “busyness.” Being “really busy” seems to have become very commonplace, almost a badge of honor.  When I get requests of any sort, they usually preface the request with “John, I know you are really busy, but….”  The truth is that I’m not “really busy” […]

In a rare departure from my usual probing of our beliefs and the assumptions that underlie them, and challenging the status quo, I’ve been moved to write a short nostalgic piece, reminding us of the major changes that we have seen in the past couple of generations.  I wonder how my grandfather would have responded […]

For all the talk about world peace and serenity, ending poverty and global warming, the reality we live in seems to remain pretty much unchanged. Do you ever wonder why this is? We have gone to the moon, invented incredible technologies, can appear holographically halfway around the world, but we seem unable to create a […]

The point I was making when I wrote The Great Growing Up book was that the human species needs to stop acting like adolescents and grow up into full adulthood, being responsible for our collective future. In my more recent delving into non-dualism, Advaita and unity consciousness I have discovered a writer who has strong […]

  I was drafted in 1960, thankfully when we were not at war with anyone. Shortly after being discharged from the U.S. Army in the Summer of 1962, there was the Cuban Missile Crisis with the Soviet Union that was the biggest international crisis I have ever experienced that involved the very real possibility of […]

This is time of year when people consider New Year’s Resolutions, future aspirations, sometimes related to mistakes or omissions from the past. In a recent holidays gathering of friends, one man shared his own challenges with recurring regret over things he has done or not done expressing a desire to leap over them whenever they […]