Every man wants to feel he’s strong—that he’s sharp, can take care of himself and not be pushed around. We also want to have large feelings, be swept by the beauty and honesty of a woman, the grandeur of a sunset. Can we have both toughness and big feelings, can we be strong and tender, […]

I once thought kindness and strength had nothing to do with each other. I wanted to be kind when, in high school, I joined a program to teach poor children in Ft. Lauderdale to read. But I felt to be strong you had to look out for yourself, beat out other people, get what you […]

In an Aesthetic Realism class in 1988, Ellen Reiss asked me: “Do you think you are generous or grudging?” The question had my whole life in it—these opposites had battled in me. For example, in 1973 I was cast in a play at a summer stock theatre. I had always wanted to be an actor, […]

In Self and World Eli Siegel explains: Power is not just the ability to affect or change others; it is likewise the ability to be affected or changed by others. If a person’s power is only of the first kind, his unconscious will be in distress…He must see that his own well-being depends on a […]

“Do you think everyone is in a fight between great emotion and little emotion?” That is a question I was asked in one of the classes I attend for Aesthetic Realism consultants and associates, taught by Ellen Reiss. And the answer, I’ve learned, is yes. The deepest purpose of every person, Aesthetic Realism shows, is […]