Big, fat drops of altruism to make your day.

The raging storm outside is seriously impressive. The winds are blowing, the water is dumping and the light is booming. I would take a picture but pictures of the weather never do it justice. I'm sure there is good reason for it, but my photos never seem to capture the light striking or the rain coming down in sheets. They usually look like unimpressive grey blurs. Plus, the best part of a storm is the sound, which is completely lost in a picture. A picture can speak a thousand words…but maybe only in sign language.

So, I close my eyes to listen to the sounds. The rain on the metal roof of the overhang outside my balcony. Big, fat drops, heavy on the tin. (Or, whatever it is made of. Sure sounds like what tin should sound like. Isn't there a play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof? But it's probably aluminium. Anyway…Back to the sounds of the storm.) Then I went upside down. Just because everything sounds better upside-down. Don't believe me? Oh well, try it.

Lots of splashes. Water on the streets kicked up from wheels. And, it's silent. Silent from the sound of people. All the crazy people who roam the streets have ran and hidden somewhere in the big game of storm against loony hide-and-seek. But, then the storm lets up and the drops become fewer. The water on the road gets more displaced and the sky is still. It's called the calm after the storm, right? Or is that the calm before the storm? Maybe there is both.

But, I'm not ready to listen to things right side up yet. Back into the handstand. What a good opportunity for some Matthieu Ricard.

Altruism with a background melody of raindrops? Oh the silence of selflessness! The symphony of the anti-ego! Sustainable, harmonic collaboration. Grow quantitively together, doing more with less, not because it is all fuzzy and warm feeling but because it makes sense as a society and as an individual. Have more consideration for others.

Start small. Start with the individual. Become the society.

What if something as simple as collaboration could save our species?

Collaboration. Altruism. Words of the day! With a background ballad of rain.

The Happiest Man Alive

Can we change? Train our minds to be happy? Better yet, actually change our grey and white matter? Yes, neuroplasticity!

Can we not really be happy and hateful at the same time, in the same brain? Oh, what a contradiction! But, wait! Geroge Orwell calls this doublethink! Oh yes, it exists, at least in 1984.

Do you confuse happiness with pleasure? Do you confuse consumption with happiness? Consumption is not happiness but fleeting pleasure. What is pleasure? Having one piece of cake. Maybe two. But, after three pieces, pleasure quickly turns to disgust and probably sickness.

My greatest goal, the most important thing to me, the thing I strive for, that I live for, the way I define good well-being, the ultimate thing that I aspire to be, the real reason behind why I do things, I do everything to be happy. Who doesn't want to be happy? Real, true happiness…inner happiness. Well, the happiest man alive, a French microbiologist turned Buddhist monk with an entertaining sense of humour, says just change your mind! Train your mind through meditation to be happy.

Well, you heard it from the pro. Namaste.