Robert Ringer Archives


What They Don’t Teach You At Any School

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (36)

One of the saddest things about our education system is that children are under enormous pressure to give answers that are safely within the boundaries of conventional wisdom. Unfortunately, the fear of being wrong is constantly reinforced and carries into adulthood. I feel I was fortunate in this respect, because I apparently inherited a penchant […]

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Throwaway People

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (26)

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I had an appointment in Arlington, Virginia.  As we were walking toward our destination, we noticed a thin, elderly lady standing near the street corner.  She was exceptionally well-groomed and dressed in a colorful, neatly pressed outfit. Leaning on her cane, she was looking around in what […]

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Your Search for Truth

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (21)

Human beings have debated the ultimate purpose of life throughout recorded history.  If one wanted to participate in this debate, he could make a persuasive argument that the ultimate purpose of life is to search for truth. I say search rather than find, because to find truth in the broadest sense of the word would […]

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The Melody of Life

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (16)

Amidst all the insanity and meaningless chatter that overwhelms us each day, every so often the Conscious Universal Power Source cuts us a break and hooks us up to nature’s Sanity Support System. We have little control over when such soothing, awareness-elevating interventions will take place, how often they will occur, or what their components […]

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Battling Boredom and Depression

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (32)

More people die of suicide each year than in car accidents, yet there remains something of a taboo when it comes to broaching the subject.  In that respect, the one good thing that has come from the tragic death of Robin Williams is that it has once again put the public spotlight on depression and […]

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A Warrior Lives by Acting

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (16)

There are two basic kinds of actions. One is proaction, which puts you on the offensive and, all other things being equal, gives you a great deal of control over events. The other is reaction, which puts you on the defensive and relegates you to an inherent position of weakness. An interesting way of looking […]

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Pushing the Decadence Envelope

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (24)

Violence is the darkest side of humanity, which, of course, is nothing new.  But what is new, relatively speaking, is that the United States is now steeped in violence.  It’s true that we aren’t into car bombings and beheadings, but we do love our daily fix of blood. You need only turn on the news, […]

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The Prime Question

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (47)

As religious fanaticism continues to pester civilized people, one wonders how civilization has managed to advance as far as it has.  One would have thought that by this time religious fanaticism and intolerance would have become passé. Religion aside, it would seem that the least everyone could agree on is a single, self-evident point:  that […]

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Is Hal 9000 on the Way?

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (18)

Like most people over sixty, I have a love-hate relationship with computers. I guess I’m lucky to have been able to jump on the caboose of the computer train just in the nick of time, back in 1982. By just in the nick of time, I mean that I was still young enough to become […]

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It’s a Kardashian-Salmon World

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Robert Ringer Comments (25)

The “experts” seem to be in agreement on the cancer risk associated with eating farmed salmon. If you eat a thousand pounds of farmed salmon a week, you have a slightly higher risk of contracting cancer than a person who eats only salmon “caught in the wild.” I love salmon, but the word cancer always […]

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