I witnessed, an extended email exchange between two friends which treated the topic of vengeance, rage-filled violence. The pivot point of the discussion had to do with a comparison/contrast between the palpable expression, the gorge-filled uprising of murderous wrath, and the more benign fictional, hypothetical contemplation of this emotional storm, such as we find…
Sunday at six thirty AM looking east the sky was pale yellow, and the sun a blinding, fiery ball. The yellow is the smoke from distant fires. I read late yesterday that the Caldor fire near Lake Tahoe is being contained. In the Midwest we do not have to remain indoors day after day…
Charlie Watts died on August 24. He was eighty. Watts played drums for the Rolling Stones since 1963. Is it trite to say that Watts passing marks the end of an era? There, I have said it and will say it again. A great deal of what we’ve taken for granted and relied upon…
Today is Friday. Sometimes I am disoriented, unsure if today is Saturday or… Retirement sometimes has a confusing texture as the structure of the workweek is removed. I am considering, speculating upon what I would desire if it were possible to be young again, to begin higher education under ideal circumstances. In hindsight, what…
Today promises to be hot, with the possibility of thunderstorms. The rain will be welcome, as the usual pattern of sunny days interspersed with rain are a memory. The summers are hotter and more dry. Illinois is under a mask mandate announced by the governor today. This measure is to prevent the depletion of…
Hungry, but not hungry enough to order a hotdog and fries. I ordered the hotdog. The man behind the counter about to swipe my card, inquired, “No fries?” That’s right I replied. I hate to throw out the fries, and that’s what will happen. “Ok” he said. I watched him compose the hotdog. A…
Imagine, by way of experiment, two young men [Wittgenstein and Heidegger] strolling together through the city – and suddenly one says to the other: “How strange that everything exists [“das es überhaupt etwas gibt”]! How miraculous: There! And there! Do you see it, too?” And the other man nods and says “Yes I see…
I took a nap on a summers afternoon, warm, bright with sunlight. I awakened noting that my blood sugar was high. A diabetic pays attention to such things. I decided to take a bike ride into town. The afternoon was quiet. A short ride would serve to address the high blood sugar. Riding for…
It is Sunday. While at Starbucks I enjoyed a conversation with an acquaintance. The conversation ranged from the Le Mans race taking place in Europe while we conversed, to Formula1 racing and Drag racing. Both of us are gear-heads with a long standing interest in performance automobiles, engineering, and racing. Any Sunday spent at…
ON PHILOSOPHERS Of a life of luxury the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature, or art. There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor…
