Good Clean Reads

“Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.”  -Madonna

It occurred to me the last time that I was in the throes of passion, when I have some of my best thoughts, that so much about our sexual experience is connected to our ability to give ourselves permission to explore the far reaches of arousal. The permission that I am referring to is not really the cerebral ‘thinking...

“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” -Mark Twain

A deep long laugh is therapy for the heart, mind and soul. Most people would agree that sharing deep long laughter with others is as intimate an experience as crying. In fact, the emotions are not opposites as we sometimes think; they live close beside each other, which is why the best laughter brings us to...

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think” – Socrates

Tonight was easily the 40^thopen school night I have attended in my decades of raising children. I go now to send a message to my children about being involved in their world more than having a meaningful conversation about what they are learning. Early on, I expected some deep understanding of the learning process, their...

“Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.” -Henri Kaiser

Life is a problem solving opportunity. This is the premise that provides the inspiration to approach almost any activity with the open-minded, curious, out-of-the-box thinking that allows something better to come out of almost any situation. When one door closes, another always opens is nature’s correction and mechanism of balance....

Randy Paytner, CEO of Care2.com is living proof of the difference one person can make in the world. Listen as he reflects on the challenging and rewarding work that has gone into building the largest online community of people making a difference in sustainable living. His positive outlook and solution oriented thinking is a breath of fresh air and demonstrates how powerful intention combined with...

“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”-  -A. A. Milne (Christopher Robin to Pooh)

My son and his friends, aka “the brotherhood,” are taking off for college now. Dispersing far and near, but definitely moving into a new phase of life. This anticipated departure has been the topic of many a conversation with a wide...

“Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding…. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good Clean Love is undergoing a transformation whose appearance often catches me off guard. Although I envisioned it and continuously asked for it, I realize now that I had very little clarity about how my small business would...

“Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.” -Bruce Lee

I have been working out a life with the same guy for 30 years. When I try to remember the girl who fell for him at 19, I feel like I am telling a...

“Hunger also changes the world – when eating can’t be a habit, than neither can seeing” -Maxine Hong Kingston

As part of the observance of Yom Kippur, we fast. Bearing witness to hunger today and of how my thoughts were consumed by the visceral experience of physical emptiness made me recognize again the weight of the issue of world hunger. The statistics of the hungry are so overwhelming, so...