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For What It's Worth

10 minute reads for a better life

Essays

Welcome to For What It’s Worth, a space for thoughtful takes, practical insights, and the occasional tangent on whatever feels worth a closer look. From everyday questions to big-picture ideas, we explore a bit of everything with curiosity, clarity, and just enough opinion and levity to keep things interesting.

Browse by series below — select a series heading to view and read its full collection of essays.

Browse by series: What Would You Call It? · Being A Game Changer · The Age Of Magical Thinking · The Emerging Christian Myths · Decoding Lies · Standalone Essays

What Would You Call It?

  • Four-part series that begins by confronting an uncomfortable truth: humans are hardwired for…

Being A Game Changer

  • Become an intentional agent of change, beginning with…

The Age Of Magical Thinking

  • Comforting beliefs shape our politics, our spirituality, and our everyday…

The Emerging Christian Myths

  • The Christian spirit world and the myths developed over centuries. Once understood…

Decoding Lies

  • Human flourishing depends on our ability to distinguish truth from falsehood in a world…

Standalone Essays

  • Embracing The Unknown

    (Photo by Rachel McDermott on Unsplash) The Road to Peace (10 minute read) Key Takeaways: “All of humanity’s problems stem from one single thing: not knowing how to remain at rest in a…

  • The Acorn Theory 1

    (Photo by Darya Tarnovskaya on Unsplash) What Are We Doing Here? (10 minute read) Key Takeaways: “In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if…

  • The Acorn Theory 2

    (Photo by Darya Tarnovskaya on Unsplash) What Are We Doing Here? (10 minute read) Key Takeaways: “Coming into this particular body, and being born of these particular parents, and in such a place,…

  • Sleepwalking In A Democracy

    (Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash) On Fear, Expertise, and the Responsibility of Paying Attention (10 minute read) Key Takeaways: When Fear Has a Point As an educator, I encouraged students to step…

  • The Only Philosophy You’ll Ever Need

    (Image by wirestock on Freepik) Bad Cucumbers and Big Obstacles (8 minute read) Key Takeaways: “You bought a bad cucumber? Then throw it away. You come upon a small obstacle…

  • Reality Isn’t The Problem

    (Photo by Remy Hellequin on Unsplash) Perspective Is Everything (9 minute read) Key Takeaways: If you have skimmed through the various posts found here, you no doubt noticed a common theme. With experience…

  • It’s About Time

    (Image by Freepik) A New Perspective (10 minute read) Key Takeaways: Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing.…

  • The Seventh Seal Opened

    (The Seventh Seal, Ingmar Bergman, Svensk Filmindustri, 1957) When Comfort Beliefs Fail Us (10 minute read) Key Takeaways: There Was Silence Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman wrote and directed The Seventh…

  • The Right To Be Understood

    Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash Active Listening (10 minute read) Key Takeaways: In my view, the argument about the right to control communication as production, as dissemination, and as consumption seemed to…

  • The Stories That Shape Our Reality 1

    (Fountain Statue of Neptune, Florence, Italy. Image by wirestock on Freepik) Inherited Myths and Their Meanings (10 minute read) Key Takeaways: To the man on the street …the word myth…