The Monkey Is the Messenger

By Ralph De La Rosa.

A thoughtful guide through meditation, particularly through eastern meditation. The book tries to help people try more than modern mindfulness mediation. 

Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic

By Esther Perel.

It's a big challenge to keep up an exciting sex life in a long term monogamous relationship. Intimacy and comfort are at odds with the erotic.

The causes and solutions to this conundrum are varied. A sixty year old couple will face different challenges that a young couple who just had a kid. 

Perel relates the stories of many people who have found way through this challenge. There is no one-size-fits all solution here. Just couples will to do the work needed to improve their relationship. 

The Evolution of God

By Robin Wright.

If you want to read the Bible as a literal, provable book, then don't dig into biblical history.

One of Wright's points is that the facts on the ground, the situation at the time, greatly defines the way those passages were written. The other way around, we are naturally led to only follow the passages that we choose. When inclusiveness allows us to grow, then we focus on the inclusive parts of the bible ("Love your neighbor as yourself").  When inclusiveness allowed the authors and editors of the bible to grow, then they wrote inclusive passages. 

When we desire isolation, then we focus on the isolationist parts of the Bible. When the authors and editors needed isolation, they wrote the stark "kill the philistines" passages. 

Wright believes that in our small and connected word we must focus on inclusiveness. For the foreseeable non-Christians will live among us, period. We must coexist with them. There is no viable path to make the world all Christian. For Christianity, (or Islam, or any other major religion) to flourish, it must coexist with the rest of the world.

And that's were we get to positive sum games and inclusiveness.

It's one thing to think about inclusiveness as a left wing mantra. Wright, however, talks about inclusiveness as a driver for mutual growth-- a positive sum game.

War, conflict, is zero-sum-- if you win, I loose. If I win, you loose. 

Inclusiveness let's us take a different path-- how can we live such that we both succeed and grow? What choices can we make that are mutually beneficial?

The "Seven Habits" has a chapter on this... "Think win-win, or no-deal."

Wright observes that positive-sum living drives us to be virtuous people-- to listen to one another, to get along, to build relationships, to work and collaborate with others-- to love one another.

Negative-sum lives are destructive. Societies built on negative sum plans can't flourish in the long run.

Write goes so far as to suggest that the existence of positive-sum-actions, and their virtuous consequences, are evidence for God.

I want to draw this out because the existence of positive-sum collaboration is also a response to those who say that life is meaningless. It's a response to those who would dismiss inclusion as a left-wing mantra.

By itself, when you think zero-sum, when you don't bring positive meaning to life, then yes, it is meaningless. When you think positive-sum, then something wonderful happens. You bring meaning to world. The world will bring meaning to you.