A blanket of snow, at least six inches covers everything. I imagine that this day could be recognized as a opportunity for the minimum, the most basic of chores, a day for rest and reflection. Not so for us who live in towns and suburbs. A snow fall presents an obstacle to be overcome,…
Certainly one does not put one’s beginnings over the horizon, in the rear view mirror of life. This Sunday morning I awakened early and made my way to Starbucks. Starbucks is the quintessential secular environment. Individuals or clusters of friends, and a few families sip coffee, enjoy a breakfast sandwich while concentrating their attention…
The bitter cold continues. Unaccountably I was not awakened by the alarm this morning. At least I have no memory of shutting the alarm off and returning to sleep. I customarily rise before sunup to begin my day. I enjoy a session of reading and writing to begin a day of activity. It seemed…
The sun is just above the eastern horizon and it’s bitter cold. After a siege of a severe head cold I am beginning to recover. Perhaps. I’ll conserve my strength and allow Nature to advance the recovery. There is only so much that I can do. I offer several quotations that are related. It…
I am fortunate. Throughout my adult life I’ve had little experience with sickness. There have been several occasions of minor surgical repair, with attendant recovery periods. I’ve had my share of colds, flu and virus infections, those onslaughts that run their course as the body marshals its defense. Unpleasant enough, but soon forgotten as…
I am feeling feverish this morning with a lingering cold. Snow continues to fall and the roads are a skating rink. I take satisfaction in knowing that Nature overwhelms the best of our engineering, the artificial habitat that we call civilization. Is that “schadenfreude” the pleasure felt at the misfortune of others? Yes, but…
Another cold morning with snow, freezing rain, and more rain anticipated for today. A somber day. I awakened looking forward to writing this post. The first snippet of news this morning gave content to my somber mood, the mood encapsulated by Paul Simon’s song, My Little Town. The NPR news snippet mentioned that the…
I am reading Bananas, by Peter Chapman, How the United Fruit Company shaped the world. It is a chilling tale of colonization. The colonial power was the United States in the late 1800s, the William McKinley administration, followed by Teddy Roosevelt. How we tend to view our history through rose-colored glasses, giving others and…
Mary Oliver has died. She was eighty three. I have a number of her books of poetry. Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your…
I awakened at 5AM. I dressed and arrived here at Starbucks. I watched a large bright white moon to the west while I drove. It’s five degrees farenheit outside. Two stars, one large and the other more faint hang in the east against the inky black sky. It is 6:30AM now and the big…
