You really have to wonder why we even bother to get up in the morning. I mean, really: Why work? Simply to buy more stuff?

If you want to get close to somebody, you have to tell him or her something intimate about yourself. They'll tell you something intimate in return, and if you keep this going, maybe you'll end up in love.

The capacity for not feeling lonely can carry a very real price, that of feeling nothing at all.

If you don't have a spiritual practice in place when times are good, you can't expect to suddenly develop one during a moment of crisis.

SAFETY NET-ISM: The belief that there will always be a financial and emotional safety net to buffer life's hurts. Usually parents.

HISTORICAL SLUMMING: the act of visiting locations such as diners, smokestack industrial sites, rural villageslocations where time appears to have been frozen many years backso as to experience relief when one returns back to'the present'.

We're all born lost, aren't we? We're all born separated from God - over and over life makes sure to inform us of this - and yet we're all real: we have names, we have lives. We mean something. We must.