1. “Why Walking through a Doorway Makes You Forget” from Scientific American based on this technical paper.

2. Ecclesiastes 3 (NASB), a biblical passage attributed to King Solomon.

Imagine a school appointed with many rooms:

A place to give birth and a place to die;
A place to plant and a place to uproot what is planted.

A place to kill and a place to heal;
A place to tear down and a place to build up.

A place to weep and a place to laugh;
A place to mourn and a place to dance.

A place to throw stones and a place to gather stones;
A place to embrace and a place to shun embracing.

A place to search and a place to give up as lost;
A place to keep and a place to throw away.

A place to tear apart and a place to sew together;
A place to be silent and a place to speak.

A place to love and a place to hate;
A place for war and a place for peace.

One might call this the school of life, or the school of hard knocks. Some of the more intense themes may not be appropriate for all ages, so imagine that care has been taken to present them gradually. For example, birth and death could be experienced through the natural life cycles of small pets, and themes of destruction could be experienced through sand sculptures or blocks. Neither is it an exhaustive list of rooms. The idea easily expands to include rooms for modern art, science, mathematics, and other forms of education.

Do our schools currently provide distinct rooms for these kinds of lessons? Is place-based learning compatible with general assessment tests?

• Choose the thickness of the steak based on how rare or well done that you prefer your steak. Thin cuts are better well done, while thicker cuts are better rare.
• Get aged steak if you can find it. It will have a layer of stuff growing on it which must be thinly sliced away and discarded.
• If the steak is not aged, at least dry it out. Wrap it in a paper towel and put it in a plastic bag. Change the paper towel daily for a couple of days.
• On the day before you plan to cook it, put it in a plastic bag with your choice of oil mixed with Herbes de Provence (savory, fennel, basil, thyme).
• Add either white wine or lemon to the bag a few hours before cooking.
• Sear at maximum temperature on a cast iron pan with raised grooves.
• Turn the steak only once near the end of cooking.
• Allow it to cool somewhat before serving.
• Pair with red wine.

By experience, I have decided that listening to my body is the most important activity I can do for myself and for others. That’s because I am in the best position to provide early diagnosis and treatment of myself. If something goes so terribly wrong that others have to get involved, then it is probably going to cost somebody a lot of money. That may happen at times, certainly at the end of life, but I want to avoid burdening others with my health. And, of course, I want to feel good. That’s why I started listening.

Here are a list of potential problems that can be avoided by noticing them early and taking care of oneself:

• Feet – Do your shoes cause you to turn your feet inward or outward? Can you spread your toes in them? Do they chafe your heels? Can you modify them to improve your comfort and posture? Do your feet smell or itch due to unresolved bacterial or fungal problems?
• Hips & Butt – When you sit down, does your belt restrict your waist? Do you clench your butt?
• Back & Shoulders – How much mobility do you have in each region of your spine? What is the effect of bending and twisting? Are your shoulders drawn in toward your chest or up toward your ears? Are you holding tension in your neck?
• Hands & Nails – Can you rotate your wrists through their full range of motion without irritation? How does it feel to spread your fingers wide? How long are your nails? Are their undersides clean? Have you cared for your cuticles?
• Underarms – Can you feel or smell anything that needs to be remedied?
• Scalp – How oily or dry is your scalp? What is the effect of increasing or decreasing how often you use shampoo, or changing brands?
• Face – How open or clogged are your facial pores? Is your face irritated by bacteria, makeup, or chemicals that you are using? If you shave, what is the effect of changing how often your do it, or changing razors and creams?
• Eyes – Are they dry? Are they cold? Should you be farther away or closer to what you are reading? If you wear glasses, is your prescription right for you?
• Nose – Do you need to clear your nose or wash your sinuses? Do both nostrils feel the same? What do you smell? Can you feel the humidity of the environment, and do you need a humidifier?
• Lips – Are they dried or cracked? Do you lick or bite them?
• Teeth – Have you brushed and flossed since your last meal? Do you clench your teeth when you are angry, or during the night?
• Tongue & Throat – What do you taste? Is there a coating on your tongue that needs to be brushed? Can you feel your tonsils, and do they need to be cleaned?
• Respiratory System – Are you filling your lungs and emptying them completely with every breath? Do your chest and belly expand when you breathe? What is the rhythm of your breath?
• Cardiovascular System – What is your heart rate? Is your heart tired? How stressed are you? Can you feel the restriction or openness of your blood stream?
• Digestive System – How hydrated is your body? How do you know when you are hungry or full? Can you feel different types of desires for proteins, calories, vitamins, electrolytes, or various kinds of whole foods? Do you know when your body needs good bacteria from cultured foods? What causes gas or allergic reactions for you? When you eat fatty foods, do you feel how much bile your gall bladder has reserved to digest them, and do you know when to stop?

I hope this list makes you feel and think. A few years ago, I was only paying attention to a small percentage of these details. I knew that I felt awful most of the time, but I didn’t know why. Expanding awareness of these issues has changed my life and vastly improved my health. I only wish I had started sooner.

Your tax dollars at work transforming rain forests into landfill.

The mailman must have been lazy that day, though I don’t blame him. Had he stuffed these papers into our boxes, nearly everyone would have dropped them into the white bins anyway, without a moment’s hesitation.

It’s nearly the physical equivalent of spam, and yet we’re paying for it! There have been a number of articles criticizing the US Postal Service (USPS) of costing taxpayers billions of dollars each fiscal quarter. The USPS is a government service that performs many useful functions, so operating at a loss is not necessarily a problem. But why, oh why, should we as taxpayers subsidize this particular kind of postal service?

Some people would like to blame the marketing companies that create this junk. Yet, in a free society, inspecting mail and judging the value of its content is a non-starter. Nobody can say that we are all better off with coupons or without coupons.

What we can do is stop subsidizing standard bulk mail! This would not stop mass-mailings, but it would reduce them. Marketing companies would think twice about sending full-priced, individually-addressed letters. The volume of mail would go down, and the price per piece would go up, which might be good for USPS finances.

But it’s not just about money. Above all, we should stop subsidizing standard bulk mail because it would have a positive impact on conserving the world’s rain forests. These beautiful forests are the home of many diverse animal species. They consume carbon dioxide and create oxygen. Have you ever received a piece of standard bulk mail that you wouldn’t trade for a breath of fresh air?

The idea is a synthesis of Keynes, Hazlitt, and my own experience.

Keynes would observe that the US has a production glut and/or consumption deficit in most sectors except medical (in which unemployment is not a problem). However, the Keynesian solution of increasing money supply to stimulate consumption increases welfare dependency, militarism, and trade imbalances while devaluing the dollar.

Hazlitt would observe the problem of inefficient production and/or markets. His solution might be to reduce welfare and offer education and job placement programs, possibly focusing on the medical field. However, the pressure of “he who does not work, neither shall he eat” would have cruel consequences during the 5-10 year transition period.

On a microeconomic scale, I see an imbalance between the overworked and the unemployed. Due to the recession, employers are pressuring their workers to do more in less time. Some encourage unpaid vacations, which solves cash flow problems for for the individual employer, but is probably not helping the economy at large. However, when overworked employees initiate a 10% proportional reduction of hours and wages, the overall effect is an increase in job openings (or reduction of layoffs). In addition, many of the stressed out workers would be more productive during their working days, and most importantly, they would create a day for exploring alternative entrepreneurial ideas.

I am already practicing what I’m preaching, and have doubled down, taking off every Wednesday for 80% of my former salary. My employer is happy, and I am absolutely loving it.

Sitting here in my apartment, I am double covered. If I walk over to my yoga mat, I am triple covered. But, if I walk down the street and hold up a protest sign, then I am completely exposed to the financial disaster known as medical liability. These circumstances are not of my choosing, and the existing health insurance laws in the US, Massachusetts in particular, actually prevent me from buying full 24/7 coverage without adding it on top of all of my other insurance.

Allow me to explain the marvel of injustice that insurance companies have conspired to create.

I rent an apartment just outside of Boston. As far as I know, every landlord in the area requires renter’s insurance for the property, and mine requires medical liability for myself and others.

I work at a company which provides substantial health coverage. If it were up to me, I would customize this insurance plan by making all of the deductibles equal, and raising them to something like $10000. It would be sad to pay such an amount, but wait a second… In the past four years of employment, my company has paid much more than that amount for insurance instead of putting it into my paycheck. I should cancel this plan, and get one that suits me better, right? No, not really. Strangely enough, if I turn it down, then I only get roughly 1/4 back in my pay check, or 1/6 after taxes.

I’m also a yoga instructor, so I’ve got yoga insurance. The government didn’t make me buy it, but every landlord and studio requires it, so again it’s a forced move. It covers me while doing or teaching yoga as well as my students and the venue. The standard coverage is probably enough to pay for hundreds of funerals in case somebody explodes and takes down the whole building.

Oops, I forgot something. Gosh, that always happens at just the wrong time. Did you read the fine print in the insurance document that your employer sold you? I did, and it says that I am not covered while participating in a protest. It’s hard to avoid the feeling that I have been manipulated here. Either my company or I would have to take on substantial financial burden for me to be covered while holding up a sign that reads “I protest the current senate bill” versus a sign that reads “I like the color blue”.

Finally, I can’t drive a car without insurance, so I’ve got that too.

All of this forced insurance coverage begs the question “What does society want to protect me from?” The answer: Doing yoga on the roof of my car while parked in the garage of my apartment complex. For that, I am quadruple covered.