Thomas Ramey Watson

peace

The Mystical Side of Music

Ali Z. Hussain writes: Lately, I have noticed that the only moments during the day when I can maintain an absolute silence is when my fingers are hosting my feelings and the piano in a conversation. Perhaps one might be inclined to think that this is the reason why my lips are sealed shut, because …

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Annie Kagan writes

Dear Thomas, I’ve been stressed out lately. The news is daunting; terror attacks, families fleeing war torn countries, the environmental mess. In my book, The Afterlife of Billy Fingers, How My Bad-Boy Brother Proved To Me There’s Life After Death, my brother Billy teaches how to better navigate life on planet Earth. Amazingly, Billy began …

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The Importance of Empathy

Empathy might seem like a squishy, vaguely liberal word—a sentimental virtue of minor importance. But the more we learn from neuroscience and psychology, the more it appears that much of human social and economic life, not to mention individual health, fundamentally relies on it. Which makes the rise of inequality— something that threatens empathy—all the …

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Abandon expectations, appreciate everything.

Jame Hamblin writes: If you think that human nature is good and powerful, then you go around frustrated because the perfect society has not yet been achieved. But if you go through life believing that our reason is not that great, our individual skills are not that impressive, and our goodness is severely mottled, then …

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