I have agreed to facilitate a course of discussion about the Tao. Tao is an ancient Chinese concept of life as a way, a journey. Whereas this has interested me for some time, I am eager to discuss Lao Tsu’s verses with other adults. A discussion is sure to be open-ended. The text, being…
Friday, the last day of the work week. I a retired old guy, am reluctant to bid farewell to a past and youthful time. Psychologically my routine is patterned by a world-of-work which I suffered, and enjoyed too, for over 40 years. Work continues to be the terrain of my life, while I no…
More remains to be said about the Kentuckiana Pride celebration event. In the interest of disclosure, I am retired, a “straight” male, and a recovering Christian fundamentalist. That last element still has weight, even after all of these years. My upbringing is still in view even as in a rear-view mirror. Our day was…
After returning to home-base in the Mid-West I now am able to consider the weekend that we spent in Louisville, Kentucky. Our family has visited Louisville a number of times to be with old friends who reside there. Also, we support the recognition of the LGBTQ+ community for Pride month in June. Louisville features…
But you’ve gotta make your own kind of musicSing your own special songMake your own kind of musicEven if nobody else sings along. Once more lyric and melody by The Mama’s and the Pappa’s emanated above us at Starbucks. The voice of Cass Eliot was arresting. We interrupted our conversation to agree how much…
Monday arrives in splendor of sunlight. I discovered a very tiny sprouting “volunteer” cucumber plant in my garden. The diminutive life survived months of winter to sprout on occasion of warm sunlight and spring rains. I rescued the seedling for transfer to a water filled vase. It’s about one inch in length. This will…
A gray and rain-soaked Sunday morning, I take sip after sip of hot coffee to dispel a sense of funk. Until late in Saturday evening my attention was focused upon family related responsibility, the privilege of celebrating graduation of a grandson from high school. This is the milestone-dividing line between childhood and adulthood. Learning…
Saturday arrives. Brilliant with sunlight, a retention pond just outside Starbucks is full with recent rain, the surface dances white light, a plate of diamonds. Today stands to be a full one. The “big event” will be the pig-roast late in the day. A family member (who constructed the roaster over 20 years ago),…
…authenticity too comes to be understood, as its own goal. It is born, out of a shift in the center of gravity of the moral demand on us: self-truth and self-wholeness are seen more and more not as means to be moral, as independently defined, but as something valuable for their own sake. …the…
Continuing to consider what I just finished reading in The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor. My identity, this awareness of agency that I entertain, – can be described as self-creation, an arduous project of construction. The American Psychological Association writes: self-formation as authenticity is the active, intentional process of shaping your identity based…
