Unconditional love is not a thing. Nor should it be.

Salt, Sugar, Fat

The development of Kraft Lunchables (and the addition of Capri Sun) is heavily covered by the author.

 

Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us is about the processed food industry in America. About the gargantuan businesses behind the way we eat; about the marketing of their products; about the food scientists they employ to find the perfect combination of ingredients to keep us coming back for more; and about the collision of capitalism and health. The author spends most of his time describing the way things are, and explaining how and why they got that way. It’s not intended to bring shame to snackers and sugary cereal lovers. It’s meant to illuminate what went into all of those brightly colored items on the grocery store shelves.

People think the questions are Can you stand? and Can you walk? For a lot of us, the questions are How long can you stand? and How far can you walk?

Dear Winning Athletes:

We all hear you praise God after the game. You're at a loss for words―except, "God is good". You seem to think that your world and God's world are one and the same. You're in your rightful place at the center of the universe; all is right because you won. Does your opponent not have the same God? Why are you more deserving than he? Is your faith stronger than his? Is there no God in Detroit and Jacksonville?

I am reminded of a previously quoted idea from Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. I called it "The Earth Revolves Around the Sun".

"The first step toward wisdom is the realization that the laws of the universe [God, in this case] don't care about you."

Like>Love

 If "like" is logical and "love" is illogical, maybe we should give more weight to the former.

Tribe

"Self-determination theory…holds that human beings need three basic things in order to be content: they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others."

Sebastian Junger's Tribe is about the engrained human need to belong. To be part of a group; to share experiences and feelings; to be pulling in the same direction; to be one. More than anything, it’s why members of the military feel lost and disillusioned upon returning to civilian life. It’s why every retiring athlete says he’ll miss the camaraderie, “the guys in the locker room”. It’s why people thrive in start-ups and small businesses but lose their focus in the larger “machine”. Our society is not set up for sharing and communal living, it’s set up for competition, scarcity, and property. We are constantly bombarded with our differences―crime, income inequality, politics―while routinely ignoring the things that make us the same. Why do we feel good when we donate our time to help the less fortunate? Why do we get angry when we feel people don’t pull their own weight and cheat the system? Why do so many people living in close quarters in poverty-stricken places say they’re happy when the richest country in the world is full of loneliness, depression, and anxiety? Because that’s the way we’ve evolved; it’s part of what it means to be human. We all have a need for connection; we need to be part of a tribe.