I have a fortunate life. You do as well, if you are reading this. To be homo sapiens is particularly difficult. Literature expresses our dilemma sometimes subtly and sometimes with a raw edge. The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus comes to mind. The rendition of this tune, and the video is an expression…
I have an old friend, an individual who expresses his disdain for “socialism.” He speaks of “force collectivism” with condescension. His point, policies to help the majority, those under-employed, individuals and families unable to “help themselves” are contemptible. I and others, react to his aversion to public funding of services targeted to persons, who…
A satisfying exchange of ideas last night, based upon an interview with Stephen Batchelor. Batchelor is a prolific author who treats the intellectual foundations and practice coming from the Buddhist tradition. I have been interested in Buddhist thought for a long while. I think the philosophy of life derived from Buddhism offers an alternative…
Another satisfying morning at Starbucks. Often do I fail to notice how good life can be, just how lucky (another way of putting it) to be seated here with a cup of coffee in hand, conversing with a friend? Friendship is inestimable, a practice of presence, the exchange of words which reciprocally enlighten… The…
Owing to three errors. — During the last centuries science has been promoted, partly because it was by means of science that one hoped to understand God’s goodness and wisdom best- this was the main motive of the great Englishmen (like Newton); partly because one believed in the absolute utility of knowledge, and especially…
Sunday. I awakened, my mind seeming to have skipped a day. It felt like Monday. The New York Times in the blue plastic wrapper lying at the end of the driveway was a clue. Today is Sunday. There’s a fine rain falling. At Starbucks I chose a table. Coffee in hand I considered the…
Saturday morning, following a few days of warm weather trees in Geneva are flowering. After the austere gray and brown season of winter cold the effect is enchanting. Life is. I do not understand life. The binary operations of my mind suited to simple problem solving makes visible only one side of life’s equation. …
Once decay has reached its climax along with the infighting of all sorts of tyrants, the Caesar always appears, the final tyrant who puts an end to the weary struggle for sole rule-by putting weariness to work for himself… In these ages bribery and treason reach their peak, for the love of the newly…
Once again I visited the old Joliet penitentiary. The abandoned, decrepit site draws me. I wanted to have another opportunity to feel the place, a scarce relic of the past. The prison was constructed in 1860 out of limestone, built by convicts brought from the prison at Alton. Alton was shuttered in part due…
Evil- Examine the lives of the best and most fruitful people and peoples and ask yourselves: whether a tree that is supposed to grow to a proud height can dispense with bad weather and storms; whether misfortune and external resistance, some kinds of hatred, jealousy, stubbornness, mistrust, hardness, avarice, and violence do not belong…
