being human: a tough job

Once you embark on a worthy pursuit, there comes a time in the journey when your intrinsic motivation starts to wane, when you hit a plateau. Your heart may point you in one direction, while your head might point in another. So who do you listen to? On one side

The snow fell softly on Pine Street as Margaret Chen locked the door of her small bookshop for the last time. After forty-two years, Chen's Corner Books would become just another empty storefront by New Year's. At seventy-three, she simply couldn't keep up anymore.

There's something profoundly paradoxical about Halloween. We dress as the things that terrify us, invite darkness into our homes through dimmed lights and flickering candles, and deliberately seek out experiences designed to make our hearts race. Yet on this night of manufactured terror, something magical happens: we laugh.