Traveling Light

You take for granted that you can check at least one bag when you fly on an airplane, but that is about to change, starting with American Airlines. They’ll be charging a $15 baggage fee for most passengers who travel with baggage. And that’s the fee for the first bag. As of two months ago, a second bag will set you back $25 on any major airline.

Stuff: A More Complete Picture

The key word in Fear of Nothing is stuff. If you’re drowning in stuff, or just slowed down by having stuff in the way, Fear of Nothing is designed to help you reach a more productive understanding of stuff so that you can keep the stuff that helps you and get rid of the stuff that’s in your way. But Fear of Nothing focuses on just one little corner of the world of stuff. Annie Leonard has created a 21-minute movie that shows a more complete picture of stuff — where it comes from, where it goes, and why we all seem to have so much of it. It’s based on the high-school economics model of production and consumption, but fills in the more unsavory details of the process.

Who’s Afraid of Nothing?

Fear of nothing provides the title for my new book, so what is it about? Who’s afraid of nothing?

Actually, everyone is. Fear of nothing is part of the human condition. It is the kind of thing philosophers like to consider, because it can’t be adequately understood without a lot of deep thought. And yet, as hard as it is to explain, it is easy to see that something is up.

Moments of Power

I woke up this morning thinking, “I don’t know what I’m going to do today.” It can be a distressing feeling, not knowing what you should be doing. When you say, “I don’t know what to do,” the feeling that goes with that expression can contain an air of helplessness or defeat.

But then I remembered — the moments when you don’t know what to do are the moments when you are the most powerful. In these moments, you are not just reacting to what’s going on around you, or rushing to keep up with the world. These are the moments when you can choose what to do. You can do whatever is most important to you. You can choose the direction for your life.