Saturday, January 29, 2011

Michael Krasny, an inspirational agnostic

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."
- Abraham Lincoln.

From his longer NPR interview, Krasny says:

....have the courage to say to your children, 'I don't know' and let them find their own path, whatever that may be.

Nowadays many of the atheists are simply quite militant about their atheism and pretty certain about it as well.


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http://www.religiondispatches.org/books/atheologies/3833/spiritual_envy%3A_michael_krasny%E2%80%99s_agnostic_quest/

And even in Stephen Hawking’s new book, he thinks he’s found answers now—he’s moved in a different direction, toward an atheism that was not clear in his previous work. It’s a jump, for maybe one of the greatest minds of our time. But I can’t continue or discontinue grappling with questions that are simply unanswerable. Okay, there was a Big Bang, but what was before it? There are mysteries on the earth that are impenetrable to us, let alone beyond our planet. So why not just accept? My dad used to say to me when I was a kid that sometimes you just have to say: I don’t know.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Something Else is More Important Than Fear

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
- Ambrose Redmoon

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Olivia Wilde on Building Lasting Relationships

When Olivia Wilde was just 18 years old, she married Tao Ruspoli, a man 9 years her senior. "You're going to change as you grow older, and that messes up a lot of relationships," she says. But 8 years later, the two are still going strong. The key to long-lasting romance, Wilde says, is to accept that nothing stays the same. The best you can do is adjust along the way.

Ease Pressure

"Even in the beginning, we never put pressure on ourselves," she says. "We were, like, 'Maybe it'll last a week.' And therefore it's lasted years." She attributes much of that to a lack of jealousy on both their parts. When you actively look for things that might hurt a relationship, you turn minor issues into larger ones.

Do Your Own Thing

"Tao is great about saying, 'You go. Have fun. I'm staying home.' It's so important to have that independence," she says. You know it yourself: Everyone needs evenings of their own. If a woman feels anchored to a man's plans, she may start to resent him for the fun she's worried she's missing. Not everything has to be a couples' event.

Hold Your Tongue

Of course it's important to speak up if you feel hurt. But know the difference between a real problem and your own insecurity, Wilde says—and sort your feelings out in your mind before rushing to express them. "I think what ruins relationships and causes most fights is insecurity," Wilde says. "So be secure. It can be hard to force, but you need inner peace if you want peace around you."


via: Olivia Wilde interview in Men's Health Magazine, from the January 2011 issue.