Michael Heykoop

How do you separate the news from the noise? This is one of the many challenges of living in the information age. In decades past, the news was a one-hour event where news anchors would describe a handful of the day’s issues and emerging trends in an attempt to keep the viewer well informed. Today’s 24-hour news channels rely on an innate ability to extend a popular story. Once it's understood that a particular item will attract viewers every detail—relevant or otherwise—every comment and every tweet become breaking news and is dissected ad nauseum.

More than 2000 years ago, the legions of Rome ventured from their isolated peninsula and dominated the Mediterranean, Middle East and much of Europe for hundreds of years. The political system and ideals spread by the empire have continued to shape the continent of Europe to this very day. Rome may have fallen in AD 476, but the last 1500 years have been filled with repeated attempts to recreate the essence of the Roman Empire, the unification of the nations of Europe.

What drives you to get out of bed in morning? It’s a simple enough question, but is it one you've paused to consider? Do you get out of bed just because it's a habit to do so, or do you wake with a purpose to carry out each and every day? The symptoms of a society without purpose and direction are evident all around us. Lack of meaning in life is a scourge which is tearing through the Western World leaving broken families, crushed communities and lost lives in its wake. The plain truth is that people thrive when they have purpose; that life itself is not absent meaning.