Do you like to give nicknames to the people in your life? Or even to inanimate objects? What are some examples?
Share why if you wish.
Month: November 2025
How Does Your Identity Matter?
More than ever before, we have to prove we are who we claim we are. What is the importance of our identity?
Sometimes it seems that we’re constantly being asked to verify our identity.
That might take the form of using a password to access an app or a website. We have to provide documentation to get a drivers license, and then we use that license in dozens of different ways. You may have to supply the last four digits of your social security number to access your utility bill. You’d better remember your PIN if you want to withdraw money from the ATM!
It’s easy to see why — identity theft happens every day. Someone posing as you might open a credit card, or use an existing card to buy things a thousand miles from where you are. Emails supposedly from you are more likely to get your friends to click on a suspicious link.
And it can be complicated and inconvenient to remember or store hundreds of passwords, keep straight all the security questions about which street you grew up on or your childhood dog’s name, and be inputting codes from texts or emails using two-factor authentication.
With all this effort being made to verify your identity, have you given any thought to what that identity is? Is it just a collection of memories and experiences? Is it genetic, like a fingerprint or a DNA sample? Or perhaps it is what you believe or the actions you would take in any given circumstance?
What makes you uniquely you, and how can you demonstrate that to someone else? And how can you verify that same information for others?
Related questions: What makes you you? With which groups do you identify? What makes something a human right?
Glory Days Or Livin’ In The Future?
In honor of the new Bruce Springsteen biopic ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ we offer this Throwdown Thursday question. Which Springsteen song better describes your life, ‘Glory Days’ or ‘Livin’ in the Future’?
Share why if you wish.
How Many Countries Have You Visited?
In your travels abroad, what is the total number of countries you have visited? Do you have any international trips planned?
Share why if you wish.
What Do We Owe Animals?
Humans live alongside animals of all kinds, and have a very complicated relationship with them. Do we owe anything to them?
The exact relationship we have with animals varies wildly depending on which ones we are talking about.
Some we have driven to extinction, or very near it. The once plentiful bison was overhunted, as was the passenger pigeon. The former, with protections, managed a population comeback after near extinction, but the latter was not so lucky.
Others have thrived living — willingly or not — alongside humans. Pets, like cats and dogs, have fared well. So have rats, which have lived in or near human civilizations since the introduction of agriculture.
As human populations have increased and spread out, we often inhabit land that used to be the home for various animals. Thus, you see odd videos of a moose walking down a street, or a bear entering a grocery store.
These interactions raise a question: what should the relationship be, between humans and animals? A predator could pose a danger to humans. People die each year in animal attacks. Animals can also spread disease, and it seems likely that the COVID pandemic started when a virus made the jump from bats to humans.
Of course, humans are animals too. And we are all part of a larger ecosystem, which has evolved over millions of years, with each species having a role to play. Changing or eliminating those roles can have significant impact on the web of life on the planet.
Beyond that, there is the ethical question: do animals deserve to be treated respectfully? And if the answer is yes, what does that look like? What happens when they inevitably come into conflict with humans?
Related questions: Do animals have rights? Does nature have rights? How are humans like other animals? How are they different? What do we owe the future?