Barbara L. Ayers -- Author

In the days of Aristotle and Plato, the heart was considered the location of the soul. Many centuries later, even with the new understanding of human anatomy, the heart has maintained its status as the seat of our feelings--the depths of our soul that gives our lives meaning and purpose. We all feel joy and sorrow. They manifest within our hearts both physically and ethereally. It is often said that my heart aches or my heart has skipped a beat. The chemical processes are real as are the mental processes that get us there. These processes are influenced by what we experience. What we hear. Words are usually at the forefront of our experiences. How we interpret them at any particular point in time will determine our reactions. Sometimes we feel strong and secure. Other times we feel vulnerable and insecure. When we were young children, we learned the phrase sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me . Well, some times they do. Sometimes the right person, at...

One of the effects of my town’s current societal shutdown has been an increase in outdoor activities such as walking around the neighborhood development. Most of us end up in socially distanced packs as we wind our way around this way and that. I often pass the time listening to conversations of some of those talkative little groups. A valuable exchange at times. On one such walk a few days ago, I was listening to a woman exclaim how sad things are for so many disadvantaged people in other countries. I silently nodded in agreement to some of the things she espoused. But at one point she began to take this a bit too far in assigning her own expectations and values to other cultures.  Yes, we do take for granted the hot showers that we can take any time we want. Yes, we do not truly appreciate that we can pick up a wide selection of foods from our local grocer almost any time we chose. These actions are just the tip of the iceberg of our mainstream American experience. Yet at what ...

Several weeks ago I noticed the posting of a new sign at my local dog park. It was titled Suggested Guidelines . The sign that used to be there was simply titled Rules for Dog Park . The items listed were pretty much the same. The only difference was who wrote them. Who titled them. This sent me off to explore what exactly are the similarities and differences between the terms rules and guidelines . Of course, as with most things that raise my curiosity, there were several more questions raised and a multitude of answers presented. So I decided to eliminate any thesaurus or ordinary word dictionary from my query. This would create a narrowing of the ambiguous and mundane definitions--leaving me with a less muddled understanding of what had been established at dog park. Black's Law Dictionary (Thomson/West 2005) had what I believe to be the best definition of why we even have rules or guidelines in a civilized society. I found that the rule of justice  summed up the rationale for w...

Plato is quoted as saying that 'human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.' I have come across this quote quite a few times in the last few days. After much pondering, I have arrived at several conclusions outlined here. Desire is a basic human drive. It can appropriately be said to be the primal appetite for something. This something can refer to obtaining a concrete object or taking an action with a proposed objective. There are people or things in most societies that are good influencers of its members. They create the desire in us for that something. Take for example advertisements or even something as basic as seeing a juicy apple hanging from a tree. All of our senses are involved in developing our desires. We can be enticed and a desire created. The question is: how much control do we have over these desires? Emotions define the level of desire through our behaviors and can be overt (witnessed) or covert (hidden). We can witness the unc...