I have mixed thoughts about Christmas. Given that the story of Christmas happens to be about a working class couple, without adequate shelter, with responsibility to care for a new born child, — as long as my home is a “Christian” country that girdles the world with military bases, and has a military budget…
It is Christmas eve. Conditions have turned bone chilling cold outside. It is 12 degrees Fahrenheit according to the iphone weather app. Those are unforgiving conditions, like the honed edge of a tempered steel blade. I read this report in today’s New York Times, written by David Leonhardt: Yet it is also clear that…
In the course of the philosophy discussion of this week, the alternative viewpoints, of freedom or of determinism came up. This durable topic surfaces often with us. How free are we? Are we as free as we feel, as free as we were taught as Americans, a culture with a heritage of Enlightenment…
Waking at 7AM this morning I felt particularly disoriented. By dint of habit I made my way to the stairs, then to the kitchen. At the counter I poured a bowl of Cheerios. I mechanically assembled the elements of breakfast ticking off the components in turn: two packets of splenda, gallon of milk, banana,…
Monday morning. I had to ask a family member last night if this was the week of Christmas. The pandemic has shorn social encounters, parties, appointments with friends, all cleaved from Christmas. A chimera, a ghost of Christmas without heart is all that remains… The sensation of giving and receiving, the tokens of a…
Sunday morning before sunrise. Still dark outside. I have the privilege of taking a nap later in the day if I choose. Why not get up, do some reading, explore the contents of my mind? Aspiring to find words to more clearly understand this time, the events occurring globally, in America, and in Batavia…
I watched the Frank Capra directed film, “It’s A Wonderful Life.” My wife and I viewed it together. It is one of her favorite films. With each viewing of this 1946 film, a Christmas fantasy tale from our parents generation, I understand better why the story has become one of her favorites. The philosophical…
It’s just another day in paradiseAs you stumble to your bed…. I know, that’s a fragment of song lyric ripped from the Eagles tune, Learn To Be Still. Waking this morning, I felt existentially disoriented. As expected there was little “good news” in The New York Times, The Morning update received via email. Of…
For over an hour those who knew Glenn O’Dell spoke of the impact of his life upon them, and of what they had lost on account of his death. I barely knew Glenn. I was a late comer to the Socrates Café discussion group. I remember that he made me welcome to the circle,…
We discussed ideas from an essay by Stephen Law. Law took pains to show that the concept of language games developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein late in his career do not provide immunity for theists from the intellectual assault of those who simply cannot believe. I do not use the term “unbeliever” because it is…
