Moral reasoning, ways we communicate, parents and learning, how the body affects the mind, holiday commercialism, does the world need saving?

Kohlberg and levels/stages of moral reasoning, the importance of literacy, different ways we communicate (imagery, writing, speaking), the role of parents in education and encouraging learning, Expressionism, literary vs. musical movements, how to fix problems with local crop yield, the standard radio's limited range of music and how it can symbolize other systemic restrictions, chemical poison in our food, pain avoidance and the inevitability of procrastination, how passion really does change the perception of work, psychosomatic illnesses and in general how the body affects the mind, the struggles of fasting and the empathy lessons it can teach you about world hunger (and Ramadan) and patience, the bullshit of statistics, how the structure of writing affects understanding, the commercialization of holidays and how retailers succeed because "it's EASIER to buy than make" (especially technology) and our consumer culture vs our previous manufacturing culture and how industry affects desires by influencing supply and demand, the question "what kind of contribution do you want to make to society/the world?", to care or not to care about what others are doing - and under what circumstances should you care?, how I have a few letters I need to write, how people get stuck on X and Y and never consider Z, how I still can't figure out why there are so many messages about how the world needs saving (unless there's...an actual need for it?) and in what way(s) do we need saved?, what are the consequences of making intelligent technology?, what are the consequences of making everything easy?, and something about force-fed dinosaur spit.

"The world is too much with us; late and soon"

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: 

Little we see in Nature that is ours; 

We have given our hearts away..."

-- William Wordsworth


Fairly certain I repeat the first line of this poem about once per week in my head.

Peace is inside you

Do not let anything destroy your spirit. Not commercialism. Not poverty. Not unfulfilled desires. You are the master of how you feel at any given moment. Outside forces are always going to try to burden you with their temptations, and tell you that you don't have enough or that you aren't worth enough. 

Don't listen. If what you really want is peace, and dare I say happiness, find a home for it in your heart.

If you want to look at the world with disdain, go ahead. But always remember, it's your choice to look in the first place.

If you're focusing on the negative or what you don't have, you're going to feel negative.