MSI Press Blog

  Depression can run in families, but not in the way eye color or height do. What’s inherited is not a single “depression gene,” but a constellation of biological sensitivities — how the brain regulates mood, how stress hormones surge and settle, how sleep and appetite respond to change. These tendencies can make some people more vulnerable when life’s pressures mount. What It Is Genetic predisposition means that certain patterns in DNA influence how neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine function, how the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis manages stress, and how inflammation interacts with mood. Family history adds another layer: shared environments, learned coping styles, and emotional modeling. A parent’s way of handling despair or anxiety can become part of a child’s internal script. How It Contributes to Depression When biology and family experience intertwine, the threshold for depression can lower. A person may inherit a nervous system that reacts strongly to ...

    Recently, An Afternoon's Dictation (Greenebaum), reached #256 on the Amazon bestseller list of books in ecumenism Christian theology. The book has been on bestseller lists many times.  Book Description:  In 1999 Steven Greenebaum felt he'd hit the wall. Fifty years old, he could not make sense of his life or the world around him. For several months he angrily demanded answers from God, if God were there. One afternoon, an inner voice told him to get a pen and paper and write. Steven then took dictation - three pages, not of commandments but guidance for leading a meaningful life.   An Afternoon's Dictation grapples with, organizes, and deeply explores the revelations Steven received and then studied for over ten years. His sharing is NOT offered as the only possible way to understand it the dictation. It is offered, rather, as a start. The book's sections include deep explorations into "The Call to Interfaith," "The Call to Love One Another," ...

  There’s a myth that aging automatically brings wisdom. Sometimes it just brings hindsight — and hindsight is a noisy roommate. The older we get, the more we realize that regret doesn’t come from what we did ; it comes from what we postponed until the moment passed. The trip we meant to take. The apology we meant to make. The class we meant to sign up for. The story we meant to write. We tell ourselves we’ll do it “when things settle down.” But life never settles — it rearranges. The truth is, later life isn’t the end of the story; it’s the last act with the best lighting. We finally see what matters. We finally know what we want. And we finally have the authority to say yes without asking permission. So do it now — whatever “it” is. Start the project. Call the friend. Learn the language. Plant the garden. Dance badly. Say the thing you’ve been rehearsing in your head for twenty years. You don’t need more time. You need less hesitation. Because the only real regret in later lif...

Every perception is a meeting point between the world and the self. We think we see reality , but what we actually see is filtered through the lens of our own inner landscape—our history, our hopes, our wounds, our temperament. The world is not simply “out there.” It is refracted through who we are. This truth carries profound significance for our relationships. Perception as Projection When we look at another person, we are not seeing them in isolation. We are seeing them through the prism of our own emotional vocabulary. If we carry unresolved fear, we may read distance where there is simply quiet. If we carry shame, we may interpret kindness as pity. If we carry trust, we may perceive openness even in silence. Our inner state colors the meaning we assign to others’ words, gestures, and absences. In that sense, every relationship is partly a mirror—reflecting not only the other person but also ourselves. The Emotional Lens The phrase “We see the world as we are” reminds us that perc...