What Is Beyond Happiness?
Think of a purpose for your life that goes beyond being happy, and you will be happy. – Michael Josephson
COMMENTARY: A Mother’s Message About Bullying: Hang in There. It Will Get better. 756.5
While researching the bullying issue for a CHARACTER COUNTS! seminar, I came across Vicky Bell’s blog, where she posted a letter to her daughter in college. I think her advice moving and wise. Here’s an abridged version: Hello my girl. . . You may have heard about the NJ college student who killed himself because his roommate posted a videotape …
Bullying
There are lots of resources dealing with bullying. Here are some especially useful ones.Are your kids at risk? Three online surveys to determine whether one’s child is being bullied, whether one’s child is a bully, and whether parents are doing all they can to prevent bullying, can be found at CHARACTER COUNTS!’s Bully Quiz. Also, check out these other anti-bullying resources …
OBSERVATION: According to a 2010 study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, half of all high school students admit they bullied someone in the past year, and nearly as many, 47 percent, say they were bullied, teased, or taunted in a way that seriously upset them in the past year. That’s an awful lot of kids who are inflicting and suffering serious emotional injuries, some so serious as to cause deep depression and even suicide.
Read the Josephson Institute’s 2010 study here. At the root of all this misery is the willingness of our sons and daughters to say and do mean and awful things that humiliate, embarrass, intimidate, or degrade others. Most of the perpetrators of all this pain are not brutish thugs with severe self-esteem issues. Many are intelligent, highly confident teens good at …
WORTH SEEING: Beautiful images to remind you to spend more time looking at the stars above — and within
A collection of beautiful images
COMMENTARY: Stars Above and Stars Within 756.4
According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, two-thirds of the world’s population, including almost everyone in the continental United States and Europe, no longer see a starry sky where they live. The reason: City lights prevent us from seeing much more than a canopy of gray shadows. What a pity. In rural or remote areas with little or …
COMMENTARY: Enough Is Enough
What does it take to make you happy? How much do you have to have to be grateful? To the barefoot man, happiness is a pair of shoes. To the man with old shoes, it’s a pair of new shoes. To the man with new shoes, it’s more stylish shoes. And of course, the fellow with no feet — he’d …
COMMENTARY: The Seven Cs of Character 756.2
As you consider your goals for the New Year, I hope you’ll think about working on your character. No, you’re not too old and I don’t mean to imply you’re a bad person. As I’ve said often, “you don’t have to be sick to get better.” In fact, it’s a lot easier to make a good person better than a …
WORTH READING: What is Character?
An oldie and a goodie: Read and listen to “What is Character?“
QUOTE: How true Daddy’s words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands. — Anne Frank
A similar thought: “Let us not say, Every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, Every man is the architect of his own character.” — George Dana Boardman