Jeffrey Alexander Martin

I've been to a lot of events over the last 20 years. I've seen a lot of people work a room trying to get alliances for politics, sales for income, financing for business, employees for growth, allies for various kinds of battles, goodwill for their careers, approval to get hired, interest for dates, and connection to feel human. In observing myself, I'm odd in this respect, which comes as no surprise. I'll give an example to illustrate. This happened a couple of years ago at Acton University in Grand Rapids put on by the Acton Institute, which is a great educational think tank. Main speeches and presentations are conducted in a large room. There are also breakout sessions in smaller rooms, like classrooms. Many of these sessions are filmed to be put online. In the main room there's a professional cameraman. Almost no one talks with him. He's just a function, the guy that runs the camera, almost like another piece of apparatus. Many people are trying to do someth...

If you see someone drowning, it's probably not the best idea to yell, "Hey, you should learn how to swim!" Instead, you should jump in and drag them out. Or, throw them a lifeline. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to throw you a lifeline. Then I'm going to offer to teach you how to swim. Life is an emotional thing. Something good happens and you're happy. Something bad happens and you're sad. You don't want to be sad, so you get mad. We're full of emotions. If your emotions are too much right now, you need to grab ahold of something. Not with your hand, but with your head and your heart. There are three types of things you can grab ahold of. One, something you can create. You can build a bird house, write a poem, fix a car. Make something. Two, something you can experience. You can go for a walk, admire a painting, read a book, go out to eat with someone. Do something. Three, you can change how you view the world. Life is meaningless ...