“I now realize that a broken back, failed surgery, and Stage IV cancer are three of the greatest things that ever happened to me.”

I could feel it in every cell of my body, and I immediately realized, there’s something here. I could feel my heart rate slow down. I could feel stress melting out of my body.

This is it! I just knew. I just knew in that moment – I couldn’t even straighten my legs. I couldn’t sit cross-legged on the floor. I couldn’t put my legs up the wall in the most gentle, restorative yoga pose, and yet, I knew.

I had a direct experience of the efficacy of this form of mind-body medicine. This comes from somebody who had been sort of an alpha male, highly cynical war correspondent, who had basically seen it all and heard it all, was cynical and trusted nothing.

This very deep, soothing voice came on, saying: “You now have permission to be strong and healthy and calm and relaxed. There’s no place else to go. There’s nothing else to do.”

m also inspired by how miraculous some of the simplest and most natural aspects of life can be the greatest sources of healing and transformation.

The Boskin Commission… was an act of cowardice. Rather than man up and say fix this, its broken, we can’t afford it.

I have no urns, no dusty monuments; No broken images of ancestors, Wanting an ear, or nose; no forged tales Of long descents, to boast false honors from.

Physical pain is a fact that comes with living, just as illness or financial woes or broken relationships are facts. But misery is a state of mind, a reaction to the facts, that can be controlled or altered by an act of will.

The worst part is staying in the room after you’ve broken the news, so that you’re forced to be there when someone’s life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn’t bother them – such people are not to be trusted.

A gun fires of its own accord and a man is shot. And a broken-down old house no good for anything but chasing kids has to trip over us. Blind accidents. What can you do against blind accidents?

How have I never realized before that for all the strong, kind parts of him, there are also hurting, broken parts?

If you ask any police officer what the worst part of the job is, they will always say breaking bad news to relatives, but this is not the truth.

For those of you who may be unaware, [Michael] Boskin is the economist/weasel/fraud who helped to officially distort the CPI, making it more or less worthless as a measure of inflation.