My friend and I run through Balboa Park on a weekly basis, and one of our latest topics discussed is the singlehood hunger.

Some people have this vibe that they are single and hungry to connect. Some people have this “hunger radar” where they can simply tell if someone is single or not, simply by the “hunger” look. The hunger look is often this vibe of searching, on the prowl, and open for any food … even the scraps.

Anxiety is the body’s reaction to an event that is experienced as disturbing or threatening.

Our primitive ancestors experienced stress when they had to fight off wild animals and other threats to their survival.

Now, in the contemporary world, we are more likely to feel the anxiety that emerges from stress when we face overwhelming responsibilities at work or home, experience loneliness, rejection, or the fear of losing things that are important to us, such as our jobs or friends. When we are exposed to such events, we experience what has been called the fight or flight response.

We have all been manipulated by other people, and it is likely that we have done a bit of manipulation ourselves.

Telling a white lie in order to get what we want is one way of manipulating someone. Students are notorious for telling teachers that they could not get their paper in on time because their computer crashed last night.

Employees claim to have car trouble in order to miss a day of work. Politicians inflate a problem or make misleading statements in order to gain public support for their agendas.

On July 4th we will celebrate the day our country declared its independence from the British Empire.

As we enjoy the fireworks and festivities that so many of us look forward to every year, few will take time to explore the meaning of the word independence and how the story of our nation’s founding might serve as a model for how each of us as individuals might develop our own independence. If developing your personal independence is at all interesting to you, I hope that you will read on.

First, a brief overview of our nation’s founding