Our philosophy discussion group has convened for many years. Gary and I have had a long standing difference of view regarding a particular staple thought-experiment. The philosophical conundrum goes thusly: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it fall, does the falling tree make a sound? Gary’s…
The wedding of history with the coffee we drink in our ever shrinking days awakes our need to reinvent love. Another morning, of the many that I have been lucky to enjoy in my sixty eight years. Fall comes, the sun shines brightly, and the slight chill promises a comfortable day. I confess that…
The weekend offered a gift of beautiful weather to those living in the Midwest. Yard work on Saturday morning, clearing the garden patch of the remaining tomato vines, and dying squash plants. The afternoon was spent in conversation with friends in Long Grove. We chatted with Michael at Buffalo Creek Brewery, sampled two of…
Starbucks on a Sunday morning. The sun shines in the windows like a strong god. To the South two days drive by car, Poseidon strikes the ground with his trident. Storm surge, extreme winds lash the keys, and the Florida mainland. Those who have not fled hunker down and pray. And so it goes…
Poseidon brought back. Hurricane Irma, a gargantuan storm is about to engulf Florida. The news prompted memory of eleven days spent on a freighter traveling from San Francisco to Yokohama, Japan. Several days outside of Japan our ship, loaded with supplies for the Vietnam war passed through the tail end of a hurricane. The…
At our last philosophy discussion session I was asked a question that I did not immediately answer. The question posed was did I not think that tribalism would always be with us? We’ve discussed tribalism within our group often, and for many months, years even. The term stands for the defensive posture, the ethnocentrism,…
We attended the Walworth County Fair. I look forward to the drive to Elkhorn Wisconsin. The fair is one of the few remaining old fashioned agriculturally-based county fairs. While inside the homemaking arts exhibit building I noticed a individual standing at a computerized sewing machine. She was guiding the sewing head lazer dot, tracing…
A good discussion last night on the topic of “violence.” I continue to mull over the concluding idea of the evening,–a reversal of the common place notion of “the good.” Here is a quote from Zizek, “According to the traditional ideological commonplace, immortality is linked to the good and mortality to evil: what makes…
Exile. That is what I feel this morning. Tuesday after the Labor Day weekend, and already there is a autumn chill in the air. Too soon, too early to anticipate the frost. I feel wrecked by life, by the chain of events that have led me, led us to this point. We have a…
I often encounter Reno, a friend, while attending to reading and writing at Starbucks. We’ve shared satisfying exchange of stories on a number of occasions. Certainly we do not know a lot about each other. But the insight gained through the story telling has effected a change within my personality, my mode of being….
