Based on the actuarial tables from the Social Security Administration, the average person will have less than 30,000 days to live.  Perhaps that is a little morbid.  My apologies.  However, I think it is interesting to think a little bit about that.  I think estimating a discrete number of days available to do our living and breathing changes the way we value each day.  Perhaps as a child, such a notion of finite days simply does not resonate. We cannot conceive of our own mortality.  However, as we progress in life, the reality of the brevity of life will set in at some point. I would contend that one way to live in a more cogitative way is to think about how we spend each precious day.

I, like many people, at least on some level, think I am above average and that I will beat the odds and have more days to live than the typical 30,000 or so days. Despite any belief in our own...

Every so often, I think I unconsciously outsource my thinking to “experts.” I have, on occasion, used the phrase, “they say…” Have you ever said that? I am reminded of this song by Jem. I like Jem’s questions in the chorus: 

· Who are they?

· Where are they?

· How can they possibly know all this?

Let’s imagine someone says, “they say…” regarding something that matters to you. What do you do? Do you accept the mystical “they say” at face value? My guess is that none of you take “they” statements at face value, but how do you separate the wheat from the chaff for things you care about? I think it is an interesting exercise to run “they” statements through the “Jem test.”

Who are they?

This is a relevant question to assessing a statement led with “they say…” Who are they? The answer to this question allows us to assess the “expert’s” qualifications, and perhaps their...

Welcome to my new blog Cogitatively.

What is “Cogitatively?” Cogitatively is a blog about living in a thoughtful way. Perhaps, at some point you have heard the Latin phrase, “cogito ergo sum,” which means “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes is credited with the phrase (or as he probably said it, Je pense donc je suis), from which I have derived this blog title. I have chosen the adverb to qualify the way I want to live; that is, cogitatively or thoughtfully. Another way of saying to engage in deep thought or to meditate is to cogitate. My blog will be the space wherein I do my cogitating. It seems a shame to waste the endowment that separates us from other species—or the ability to use our higher order thinking for our own good and those around us! However, speaking for myself, far too often I either follow the crowd or allow my thinking to languish at a superficial level. I...