Climate change is manifest by extreme weather events. Over the past two days the backyard has soaked up so much water that a footfall instantly produces water welling up around my shoe. It’s 6PM and rain continues to fall. Recently I read that Anglo-Saxon England of the 10th century was also going through a…
One can wonder what our ancestors did for recreation absent video screens. After a steady rain in the evening, the morning dawned with light rain and a gusting wind. Out of doors plans made little sense under these conditions. To remain dry and warm the day would be spent indoors. Like many middle class…
A comment left by a friend last night reminisced on the Legend of King Arthur. The legend suggests that merry ole England was ruled by a chivalrous king and nobles. This could not have been further from the truth. We love our myths: American exceptionalism, manifest destiny and everyone’s favorite “the American dream.” The…
Sun’s-day Moon-day Tiw’s-day Woden’s-day Thor’s-day Frig’s-day Saturn’s-day Thunor, god of thunder and Frig, goddess of growing things and fertility…. Perhaps it is both human and wise, like King Redwald, to keep in favor with both sides. Two altars were constructed side by side. At one altar the king partook of bread and wine, “the…
Love should not be written in stone but written in water. –Cattulus Very little is objectively known of the life of Gaius Valerius Catullus. It is believed that he was born in Verona in 84 B.C. to a wealthy and well-connected family. Catullus’ father was a friend of Julius Caesar. He died in Rome…
Am reading about England of 1000 AD. The book by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger is an enjoyable read of the conditions of life in the Middle Ages, dealing with Viking raids, settlements by the Norsemen, and the development of Christianity. I imagine the story as a time capsule sent to me from my…
Yeah, I know the word “luck” is totally plebeian, tarnished with the soil of ignorance and superstition. We may resist using the term preferring instead gussied up circumlocutions such as “in sync with the universe.” Is there any difference? Does not luck in all of it’s variations touch the finite nature of our knowledge,…
The primal law that governs all living: not love not hate not hope but fear Its universality is the cause of every abomination in the shitty chaos called human history. The trick is not to become unbalanced, punished, ruled by it. Any fool can be a pessimist; it takes no imagination, no guts. Remember…
Is this how a member of a bomber crew felt upon return from a WWII mission upon sighting the cliffs of Dover and England below? Maybe. At the end of a visit to my home town, I hope to board the American Airlines jet shortly, for transport back to Chicago. A visit to my…
When you cut off arterial blood to an organ, the organ dies. When you cut the flow of nature into people’s lives, their spirit dies. As we plunge into cyberspace and strive to replicate the “real” world in the “virtual,” we lose sight of one fundamental fact: nature is totally missing in the digital…
