New Year’s Wishes From Michael

I hope you had a great Christmas or Hanukkah and, if you had time to spend with your extended family, that you had a wonderful time or, if such occasions are not uniformly a source of joy, that you, nevertheless, found reasons to be happy and grateful. This year has been unusually challenging for me, so I suppose I am …

COMMENTARY 807.3: Good Memories — The Gift That Keeps On Giving

When giving gifts or spending your own money, remember that experiences create deeper and longer lasting pleasure than any object you can buy. In a world preoccupied with the quest for material possessions, it’s easy to overlook the fact that the most valuable things we own are our best memories. Good memories are the gift that keeps on giving. They …

COMMENTARY 807.2: Christmas — Christianity’s Gift to the World

As a Jew married to a Catholic, my fondness and reverence for Christmas includes, but goes beyond, recognition of its enormous religious significance. I view Christmas as the gift of Christians to the world – a day dedicated to transcendent values like love, compassion, and charity, as both moral obligations and a source of joy. In 1905, Henry Van Dyke …

COMMENTARY 806.2: Saying the Right Thing

When someone you care about is suffering greatly, what’s the right thing to say to make him or her feel better? There are all sorts of traumas that can send us to the darkest dungeons of despair – the death of a loved one, being raped, getting a divorce, losing a limb, seeing a child sent to jail or on …

Take Control of Your Life

You are what you are today because of the choices you made yesterday, and the choices you make today will make you what you are tomorrow. Take control of your life. Choose wisely. – Michael Josephson                    

OBSERVATION: Life After Life-Changing Traumas

Research on the the post trauma lives of victims of tragedies like the school shooting in Connecticut, reveal that most survivors eventually escape their dark dungeons of grief and despair and that many actually led happier, more fulfilling lives. This evidence validates Nietzsche’s observation, “What does not kill me, makes

OBSERVATION: A Personal Note on the School Murders in Connecticut

I find myself crying every time I think about what the families of the murdered children and their teachers are experiencing. I feel cowardly as I force myself to think about something else rather than linger on these thoughts. I have even avoided following the story on TV because I find the feelings of empathy and compassion so intense it …

OBSERVATION: The massacre of 20 kindergartners and 6 adults in Connecticut has traumatized children and parents everywhere with fear and grief. Sadly, the fear may never go away. There are more possibilities when it comes to grief.

Grief is among the most intense and debilitating emotions we can experience. It can overwhelm every other emotion and sentence us to a dark cold dungeon where hope and even the will to live are crushed by the weight of our pain. When grief is at its strongest, we can’t even muster the will to get out. Though we are alone in …

Memo From Michael: Thoughts on Turning 70

I am approaching this last month of 2012 with optimism but a special eagerness to enter a completely new year, a blank canvas on which I hope to paint a grand mural of another year’s worth of challenges and successes. I confess that I have some trepidation approaching my 70th birthday (December 10) – that really, really sounds old to …

Memo From Michael: Difference Between Expressing and Experiencing Gratitude

Please accept my sincere good wishes that your Thanksgiving celebration is gratifying. I’ve talked before (and again in Commentary #802.2) about the difference between expressing and experiencing gratitude. I think both are important but they are quite different. Expressing gratitude to people who deserve your thanks is more like a duty, the payment of a debt. It is a way to demonstrate …

COMMENTARY 802.4: Learning to Experience Gratitude

In the past few weeks I’ve received an unusual number of kind and encouraging letters either posted to this blog or sent directly to me (at michaeljosephson@jiethics.org). Many congratulated me for hitting the milestone of 800 successive weeks publishing my commentaries and thanked me for the value they felt they received from my thoughts. Quite a few offered best wishes …

COMMENTARY 802.3: Appreciating a Parent’s Love

While window-shopping in New York City, I saw an old gold watch that reminded me of one my father gave me when I graduated from college. It had been engraved with the simple inscription “Love, Dad.” But it was stolen during a burglary years ago, and I hadn’t thought much of it or the inscription since. I always knew my …

Memo From Michael: So Much to Be Thankful For

I begin the 801st week of these commentaries with a profound sense of gratitude – the perfect attitude for the days leading up to Thanksgiving. High on my list is the privilege of communicating my thoughts to so many people. I am particularly grateful that I have been able to touch some lives in a meaningful way. I am grateful …

OBSERVATIONS: Thank you, Veterans. Whatever our views on war in general or any particular war, we have a moral duty to be grateful to, and to support and honor, the men and women who have served their country by wearing its uniform and representing its flag. It is proper that we reserve our deepest gratitude to those who lost their lives or suffered injuries on behalf of their flag and fellow citizens, but we should also acknowledge with genuine appreciation the lesser but still significant sacrifices of all those who incurred pain, fear, extreme discomfort, separation from loved ones, and lost income. – Michael Josephson