I've never been much of a linear writer, it turns out. I'm more likely to get upset by something and dash off an editorial that gets it off my chest. So this is more a collection of outbursts than a completely digested analysis of life. As a result, it's nowhere as erudite as the stuff professional philosophers write. But it still expresses simple ideas that I believe are accurate and useful. And there are still millions of people out there who need their brains kick-started.

As far as I can tell, these bonbons are addressed to two vanishing minorities: bright high-school students, and older folks whose minds are still open to big questions. They're meant to draw people who haven't been exposed to much actual thought into what you might call Philosophy 101, tossing them tantalizing appetizers without actually offering any seven-course meals.

Soft-focus random-walk answers to tongue-in-cheek questions may not be relevant to what concerns you at the moment. In fact some of these journeys veer on the speculative. But dive in anyway and tell me if anything wonderful happens to you as a result.

In 2012, published 31 of these essays in her book