Sunday, late summertime is fine here. Sunshine, the beds of flowers display a riot of life and colors. But not so everywhere. In the aftermath of the Maui wildfires the death toll stands at 93 so far. Did anyone think a tropical paradise could be vulnerable to wildfires? Neighborhoods wiped out, now become skeletal…
I received this poem yesterday. Later in the day I observed hibiscus growing wild in a wetland by the Braeburn marsh. I was excited to return later, parking my vehicle in a nearby neighborhood then hiking over the wetland, dry now because of the summer drought. The hibiscus were magnificent, glowing, saucer-sized gems in…
I have puzzled over the difference in temperament between a die-hard republican, one who would cast a vote, albeit reluctantly for Trump, rather than vote for any democratic candidate. Or consider the liberal minded who judges the republican to be in thrall to a ghost emanating from the pre-industrial 18th century. There exists a…
In the course of a brief phone conversation yesterday with a friend, music was mentioned. What does music affect for us, when we listen, when we are enthralled with rhythm, rhyme, harmony, and the lyric of a human voice? Could it be we are addressed by a god that we cannot name, one without…
Jean Paul Sartre in his famous play No Exit writes, “Others Are Hell.” Who would disagree? I do care what others think of me. Still I have no way of knowing what they think. Therefore I “dance around” trying my best so speak and behave in sync with minds that are opaque to me… …
Once there was a time when I believed in “free will.” I truly thought that the course of my life was the sum total of decisions, freely made. Furthermore, self recrimination, or self-congratulation was due because I was the actor, the subject who had decided those courses of action. I was the helmsman-of-my-life, accountable…
These lines compel reflection. Songs about love beyond counting have been written. Just within my short span of life, poets and lyricists find a bottomless well of material, as they peer into the surreal experience of love between two human beings. And, this is not limited to male-female love, never has been… Nietzsche comments…
The weekend has been full. It’s only Sunday morning and I wonder what this day will bring? What adventure(s) will be in store? We are all Sisyphus are we not? A friend reminded me of the enduring truth of this myth. Each of us is subject to fate, the inexorable consequence of cause and…
Perhaps you’ve had the misfortune of acquaintance with someone who conducted himself as if he was discomforted by “a stick up his ass,” a moral prig? I wonder whether churches serve as a magnet for such who desire to judge others? Like attracts like. A unctuous, self-abasing demeanor can be a screen hiding self-loathing… …
It is Friday. I’ve got almost nothing to write. What does it mean “to be” here, to exist, to be located in Starbucks at 7:15 AM on a Friday morning? What links my being, to my physical position in space and time, here-now? The room is quite full, humming with voices and movement. I…
