Earlier in my life, I lived day-to-day with little awareness of, scarce concern about the occupant of the White House. Lately, I really miss President Obama. He exhibited probity and propriety for eight years, in the teeth of stiff opposition. He observed that the cost of health care for a majority of Americans was…
Last night after dusk I saw the planet Venus suspended, a glowing large star, behind the silhouette of the tall maple in the distance. I felt the comfort of knowing that Venus remains for me, as it did for my father, my grandfather, and for so many past generations. The enjoyment of that glimpse…
VII This, then, is to be the way? Freedom’s candle will be snuffed out by freedom’s sworn defenders, chanting hourly the praise of freedom. Their praise will console the free waking in their prisons when the Bill of Rights has at last dissolved in the indifference of the great Self of force. When the…
There is a story that Czeslaw Milosz, on a return visit to his birthplace in Lithuania some 50 years after he had left, walked up to an oak tree and embraced it. An image of the return of the native, of course, but also an image of someone drawing strength – the psychic, moral…
It is Friday, midwinter. Out of the window here at Starbucks the sky is unrelieved gray, much salty damp asphalt, and concrete curbing. The architecture of our way of life is designed to accommodate the automobile. Automobiles, now cybernetic platforms, often cost as much as our parents paid for a house. Trees, shrubs, grass…
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump ordered the re-authorization and rapid completion of the Dakota Access and the Keystone XL pipelines, two controversial infrastructure projects that will make it easier to transport fossil fuels across North America .—The Atlantic Daily Jan 25, 2017 Earth “A planet doesn’t explode of itself,” said dryly The Martian astronomer,…
We spent the evening discussing slavery. Admittedly a depressing topic. The topic was explored to the extent of our ability and satisfaction. How do we explain slavery? Slavery as a legalized practice of owning and utilizing the life force of another, ended in the late 19th century. There are reports of remaining outlaw human…
I grew up in the South, as a Christian Fundamentalist. Everyone has to start somewhere. It’s not as if you or I have a choice. The text of the Old and New Testament was a major factor in my upbringing and consequently of my view of myself. As an adult, revising, reincorporating those formative…
Now I understand better the utility of silence. Nowadays the availability of social media has created a troposphere of unrelieved cacophony, a din of trivia, opining, and pontificating. There is even a class of paid hacks, contracted to generate opinions favorable to their paymaster. My life 1s enriched when I endeavor to just shut…
Last night Peter posed a question to us around the table. “Given that no one chooses to exist, to be born into this world, –What obligates us to choose to be helpful, to act kindly toward others?” That question always touches something deep within me. Something more basic and indescribable than my words awakens…
