I have never used that word before. It means utterly astonished. Yesterday four of us experienced an architectural tour of Chicago, narrated by Joe, our tour guide, progressing on both the south and the north branches of the Chicago river on the Wendella tour boat toward Lake Michigan. The word describes the wonderment that…
In the aftermath of some hours of soaking rain I took a walk in the yard. The rain was welcome in that trees and shrubs benefit from a thorough soaking of the soil. Water is life. I suppose that I am similar to any other mammal that moves around following a ample rainfall, everything…
Yesterday we visited Cantigny Park to experience a Revolutionary War Reenactment. At a distance we observed the ballet like performance of a artillery crew firing the canon, then followed the choreographed advance of a line of infantry marching across the green meadow. Reenact a war? The thought of reenacting a war, causes the mind…
Yesterday was Labor Day, a national holiday. Many businesses were closed, as the intention is to celebrate the “working man.” This is ironic. Those who labor behind the scenes, stocking the shelves, sorting records, expediting those customer orders flowing into Amazon warehouses across the country, — orders promised for next day delivery… Those who…
The supreme being, the sovereign deity, the god of heaven, is generally only a more powerful god of the same nature as the others. The gods are simply mythical spirits, without any substratum of reality. The spirit that is not subordinated to the reality of a mortal body is a god, is purely divine…
You did what? You went where? Once again you spent a Saturday afternoon at a drag strip? Why? What’s the attraction? I’d have to say that the quarter mile drag strip, 1,320 feet of two lane asphalt is one of the last sane places, where men go to war. Surely you are kidding, making…
Sunday, the backward look… Yesterday was delightful. On a Sunday, we give ourselves permission to reflect, to consider in the course of a walk in late summer, the perfection of Nature’s effulgence in plant life. After breakfast in Geneva we walked down 3rd Street. We admired the elephant’s ear leaves, purple, green and…
What is that? How often have you asked yourself? Can you remember the last time you wandered around your backyard with no chore in mind, noticing the strange, seeing something beautiful as if for the first time? True confession, — I seldom do just that. On the other hand my grand daughter of two…
What is it about machinery, the proximity of forged, of cast metal, that combination of fire and steel of a machine that has shaped the male psyche of my generation? Will I always fail to do justice to the attraction of the symmetry, the “magic” of artifice, — which strikes home to the male…
A few minutes until 7AM, and the streets of Geneva were silent, traffic on State Street was scarce. A rare sensation of quiescence on a Sunday morning in this river town. It will not last. I begin to write, the raucous sound of the bean grinding machine, the animated conversation of baristas behind the…
