What follows is a guest post……………………….. Friday morning our Newfoundland/Golden Retriever mix, Astrid, roused me from sleep nearly an hour earlier than I’d hoped to get up the day after Thanksgiving. She wanted to be let out, of course. So I growled to myself, stumbled downstairs into the dawn, opened the sliding door to…
There are two more days left in November. Then comes December the darkest month, which is also the coming of Christmas. Christmas is a festival of lights. Darkness and light. This morning I wish that I were a bear having found a warm place to hibernate until spring. But I am not a bear…
That is a term that has not come to mind for many years. The concept means causation. Nothing comes to be apart from depending on many other things. It is an important, often used word in Buddhist texts. The Buddhist tradition takes cause and effect with total seriousness, –as serious as a heart attack…
We visited the ELMHURST ART MUSEUM on Saturday. May not one purpose of a holiday, be the opportunity to step outside of ordinary time, to be with friends and family, and to seek experiences that widen one’s world, increase one’s capacity to wonder? That is exactly what I wish for myself and for those…
Michael: Every time he comes up, he’s got no knife, he’s got no jacket, he’s got no pants, he’s got no boots. All he’s got is that stupid gun he carries around like John Wayne. That ain’t gonna help ya’. Axel: Oh, what the hell, Mike. Give him the boots. Michael: No way. I…
Honduran migrants, October 2018 Perhaps confusion is a natural state of mind for us. The condition never completely goes away. We try to minimize confusion. Civilization is the construction of a “world” to reduce our confusion. The Natural world is given, not made by us. Nature is a congerie of living organisms and inanimate…
The Day After Thanksgiving, is a day off for most people. Starbucks is quiet. Baristas behind the counter are working leisurely, exchanging stories of their thanksgiving experience. Each family Thanksgiving is one-of-a-kind. It is rare to enjoy a leisurely meal together, not to speak of having extended family and perhaps friends join the circle…
Yesterday, I saw an automobile that prompted me to reflect upon my heritage. I remembered my deceased half-brother, and a time and place of growing up as a kid.. On the display floor at the Roadster Shop in Mundelein a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 caught my eye. You could say that the mid 1950’s were…
Trump Stands with Saudis over Murder of Khashoggi By Mark Mazzetti and Ben Hubbard Nov. 20, 2018 WASHINGTON — President Trump has long viewed foreign policy as a series of business deals, stripped of values and idealism. But his 633-word statement on Tuesday about the brutal killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi showed…
In the parking lot of Mercy Hospital, and inside of the building four people were killed yesterday. Yesterday twelve people were killed in a California country music bar. The slaughter continues in our armed-up society. Wouldn’t think of giving up our guns. In fact we have the right to carry them around with us…
