Friday is typically conceived as the end of the work week. The truth is, one’s work never ends. To be alive is to work. We make these conventional assumptions, arbitrary lines. They are illusory and evaporate under the pressure of reality. What we think is reality gets in the way of reality. So here…
While living in the suburbs I seldom go into Chicago. Every place in northern Illinois is within the orbit of the city, one of the most populous in the country with 9.5 million people. The scale of the city causes discomfort. I have a sensation of 360 degrees of thinly veiled chaos when I…
Life is a matter of values. The thrust of one’s life is a matter of one’s aims. Purposes which one has chosen together, constitute the meaning of an individual’s life. Each has the opportunity to choose, to endorse the path that he or she takes. A few of the options offered by our post-industrial,…
We attended a Memorial Day ceremony in Beach Park. I did my best to enjoy it. It always seems tragically sad to remember those who died prematurely in unnecessary wars. I consider the Vietnam War and all of those since, including those underway,–unnecessary. To disregard the evidence of your own senses, and to believe…
Saturday was dedicated to putting in the garden. The patch of ground was broken a few times with the assist of a power tiller. I was grateful for the powered help. A neighbor who owns a horse farm was kind to allow me to obtain a sufficient quantity of barn manure for fertilizer. The…
Saturday is the beginning of the long weekend, culminating in Memorial Day on Monday. Memorial Day is set aside to remember our war dead. The last war to defend the country from attack was World War II. The others since have been “botique wars” conducted by politicians to assert our interests; Korea, Vietnam, Iraq,…
Awakened this morning from a nightmare. The dream had to do with life as we know it today, of encounter with the myriad bureaucratic obstructions imposed upon the individual by “the system.” There is no escape. Costs pile up. Red light cameras, late penalties of all kinds, and if you live in Cook County,…
This morning I was delighted to locate on my shelf a text book from my college days. I was introduced to the words of the Tao te Ching from A Source Book In Chinese Philosophy by Wing-Tsit Chan. I’ve not opened the book in many years. Finding it was like receiving a phone call…
What a session last night at Starbucks. At least fifteen of us were seated around a table of a size to accommodate ten people. The room was echoing with voices, with the cacophony of the cappuccino machine used by the baristas. Nevertheless the group intently listened to chosen readings from the Tao te Ching. …
I watched again on video the wedding between Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. I wish the couple well. There are few things more fraught with risk than marriage. There are many inevitable unknowns, like the under water volume of the iceberg that looks so beautiful and benign on the surface. Good luck to…
