This is the eighth of many collections "From the Mind Of Critic." The short essays can be flipped through randomly, or read in succession. They run the gamut of human emotions from love, to hate, to fear. Along with a healthy dose of politics, humanism, unity, accountability and truth, this collection will hopefully stir the pot just enough to start conversations. For if we simply talk to each other like human beings, we'd find that many of our generational issues can be solved. Emotions soften when fog lifts, making us realize we agree on a lot more than we disagree. We just need to get out of our own way, and remember, everything we need to know we learned in kindergarten. "If we're good to ourselves, we can be good to others when we stop seeing those others as "others", but as part of ourselves." "True democracy is possible, but only when we enact its fullest definition." "Self-doubt will creep in when we least want it to, we defeat it each time by constantly reproving the illusion it really is." "If we create our own reality, we can always create a better one." "We help each other not by providing answers, but by providing enough understanding that answers are located and respected." "We are light bringers for ourselves and each other, just not light creators for the world to obey." "We find collective enlightenment, when we discover what "we're the same because we're different" really means." "We may not be sure where we're headed, but as long as we remember "why" we're headed there, we'll never get lost trying to figure out what we're doing." "Inhaling the beauty of nature helps us remember what's truly important, but if we're not open to receive the positive motivation we're literally designed to receive, the peace that's supposed to wrap us in a warm blanket, will appear as yet one more false prophet hawking snake oil." "Creation requires us to get our hands dirty, destruction requires our hands stay clean." "Focusing our perspective on positive evolution and paying it forward, ensures peace will find us." "Self-love is the path, gratitude is our walking shoes." "We may not have success yet, but the more we remember we still want it, the less we'll let anybody distract us from our soul's path; even if somebody thought they were expressing love, but were actually accentuating sadness." "Dark towers and light tunnels will forever be part of our journey, we simply need to be empathetically kind enough to not sign a permanent lease in the doldrums."