Ten bajillion product ads notwithstanding, your looks are another thing that's basically genetic.

Conflict in close relationships is not only inevitable, it's essential. Intimacy connects people who are inevitably different.

As much horror as we have always created, we are a species that keeps moving forward, seeing new sights in new ways, and enjoying the journey.

The difference between success and failure isn't the absence of fear but the determination to pursue your heart's desires no matter how scared you are.

The end goal of all of this striving is to live joyfully, and that there are often more direct ways of achieving this than conforming to rigid standards set by social custom.

To care for someone can mean to adore them, feed them, tend their wounds. But care can also signify sorrow, as in "bowed down by cares." Or anxiety, as in "Careful!" Or investment in an outcome, as in "Who cares?" The word love has no such range of meaning: It's pure acceptance.

Given the eclectic and constantly shifting nature of my metaphysical inclinations, I will probably never feel certain exactly what an angel is.