Bravery is the Cornerstone of Being a Fraud

Count Victor Lustig never suffered from imposter syndrome, and he wasn’t a Count, a Victor, or a Lustig. He was a Robert Miller, born in Bohemia in 1890 (probably).  Bob was a fraud, and “Count Victor Lustig” was only his favorite alias. His most famous fraud was when he forged government credentials and sold the Eiffel …

Magic is Real

Thirteen years ago, David Copperfield got mugged at gunpoint by some teenagers who’d just moved to Florida from Kentucky. But David Copperfield—the most commercially successful magician in history—didn’t actually get mugged because he used slight of hand to make his pockets appear empty. In “reality,” David Copperfield’s pockets were holding his wallet, his cellphone, and …

Moderation: Even in Empathy OR Empathy is for Suckers

We’re told empathy is good. That it’s great. That without it we’d be sociopaths. Fine. I don’t disagree. But I think it’s time we sat down and talked about the dangers of too much empathy. (Now, if you suffer from not enough empathy, go away. This isn’t for you. Go figure out how to have …

The Joy of Painting

I think it was Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes who said: “Ancient dissectionists spoke of the auditory nerve being divided into three or more pathways deep in the brain. They surmised that the ear was meant, therefore, to hear at three different levels. One pathway was said to hear the mundane conversations of the world. A …

Energies in an Expanding Universe

The Law of Conservation of Energy says that energy is not created or destroyed. It’s just there. All the time. The same amount. Always. Every day. There’s no more. There’s no less.  It basically bounces around being different kinds of energy. Going where it’s needed. Getting transferred from place to place during its eternal journey. …