I recently discovered Jonathan Haidt, Virginia psychologist and author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom.

Being older means that you have been a part of history whether you like it or not. For me, it’s been interesting to watch America change from a manufacturing society to a service society.

Legal services have been around since pre-Roman days, but not even Marcus Aurelius had a Certified Financial Planner.

Buddha taught that reality is transient and impermanent.

Around the same time, on the other side of the world, before Internet, cell phones, Facebook, or e-mail, a Greek called “Heraclitus” was making a name for himself by teaching wisdom is short blurbs, including “the only thing constant is change”.

I am a strong believer in the law of compensation. Emerson was one of many sages who articulated it. It goes back, however, much further. The Taoists (600 BCE?) opined that the universe is made up of opposites.

Teleology ebbs and flows in popularity.

The Greeks, Aristotle, predominantly, believed that nature was teleological.

Teleology, loosely translated, means that everything in nature is programmed to move towards a specific end.

An acorn’s teleos is to become an oak tree.