I take great joy in beautiful art, well designed architecture, smart design, in addition to luxurious pampering services such as 4-handed full body massages with essential oils that I think should be a human right 
But when does it all get to be unacceptable? Is it ok to be getting a massage, let alone a luxury car, when someone cannot afford a meal next door?
There is a difference between reasonable luxury and tasteless ostentatious decadence.
Travelling alone, even if occasionally, is the most precious gift you can give yourself. Most people won’t even consider the thought, and yet are unaware of the enormous benefits. Unless people find their own company very boring, in which case, that is and even bigger reason to do it
I am looking for a convincing answer to the question of “Why are the Lebanese so apathetic?”. Anyone?
Coming out of 2016 feels like coming out of a battlefield. I suspect the feeling is shared by many others: the feeling of a warrior happy to have come out alive, and looking forward to, hoping for (perhaps naively) a less cruel and violent 2017. But at this point the scars and bruises of battle are still feeling heavy, and one feels there is a need to hide and nurture body and soul before facing the new year. How does one find joy again in this context?
Separating mere acquaintances from friends seems a relatively easy thing to do; but the question was how do we separate friends from real friends? This is not so obvious; we might be tricked into thinking that friends with whom we spend more time are the real friends; further thinking made me not so certain about this though.
On the accession of my birthday, here are my thoughts on the one thing that causes me the most anxiety: The Passage of Time!
Here is my 5-point formula for preparing from right now, for a much more engaged, healthy, and enjoyable old age. Old age should not be something that just happens to you and you take your chances on. It should be something you actively prepare for.
And yet, here I am in this partial retreat in the mountains, with all this quiet time to hear the inner voices, and this experience again of detachment and solitude, and one of the main ideas that keeps
popping up is, what might my life be like in my old age?
What does it mean when even the likes of Mother Teresa, now Santa Teresa, are being put in question, and how do the rest of us mere mortals cope with this anxiety?!
But there is something that I must admit to. The above argument is a rational one. Emotionally, I really do not want to see burkinis or even veiled women jumping in the water all dressed up when I’m on the beach anywhere, let alone on the beach in France! I really don’t. I admit, and I know this is not at all politically correct but I’ve never been politically correct, that this is an ugly sight to see on the beach. It might be an infringement on their rights to ban it, but it is also in infringement on my aesthetic rights to have to endure it. So what to do?