Rising early to read and write I sat in the early dawn light here in the lobby at the Best Western Derby Inn in Eagle River. The slant of the sun illuminates the line of white birch trees in the distance. I exchanged morning greetings with one of the managers just after she had…
Yes, I know there is a book by that title. I read a NY Times article (Who Killed the Knapp Family?) forwarded by a friend, that reminded me afresh, that I live in a country of multitudes of a suffering, beleaguered, permanent underclass. The phrase captures the story that I have to write this…
The beautiful monster vomits a stream of watches clocks jewels knives silver coins & copper blood The well of time & trouble whiskey bottles perfume razor blades beads liquid insects hammers & thin nails the feet of birds eagle feathers & claws machine parts chrome teeth hair shards of pottery & skulls the ruins…
After out patient surgery earlier in the day our daughter was resting. She chose The Matrix film as entertainment. We waited for the medication to arrive from Walgreens and refreshed our memories of this great film from 1999. There are many lines of dialog from the characters Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity that are as…
I did something that I cannot remember doing before. I saw the same movie twice, Ford vs Ferrari which features Matt Damon playing the role of Carroll Shelby and Christian Bale in the role of Ken Miles. The story is a exploration of human nature, the cost of achieving excellence, — an adventure involving…
Philosophy becomes a kind of necessary virus, which causes a constructive fever in others, compelling them to be and to do more than just survive. It is not there to appease or to make people feel better; it is there to provoke a constant restlessness of being. –excerpt from What Makes A Philosopher? by…
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…
On Receiving the First News of the War by Issac Rosenberg Snow is a strange white word; No ice or frost Has asked of bud or bird For Winter’s cost. Yet ice and frost and snow From earth to sky This Summer land doth know; No man knows why. In all men’s hearts it…
I received a sardonic email from a friend this morning. The writer observed that “the sun is hot, ice cubes are actually made of water, and blueberries tend to be blue.” Such observations of the nature of reality, until recently uncontroversial, agreed upon without further ado as “common” by everybody except maybe those under…
To stop thinking about the Second World War and Auschwitz is to forget the reality of the horror of war and the violence of extermination. –John Armitage 2002 Introduction to Art and Fear by Paul Virilio To bow in silence seems appropriate in response to the eleven who were killed in the Tree of…
