I’ve not posted in several days. The writing routine has been interrupted by a remodeling project at my preferred spot for contemplation, my examination of soul for proper words. I think that good work requires being at home in a context. The renovation of the Starbucks is nearly complete and I should return to…
Rage! Menis! How much history, as though a blind fate, –is a story of rage and the aftermath. April 2, 1865 the Confederacy was essentially finished. After four years of war, the Union army entered Richmond while the city burned. A way of life based upon slavery, the blind determination to unjustly use human…
The rage of Achilles—sing it now, goddess, sing it through me the deadly rage that caused the Achaeans such grief and hurled down to Hades the souls of so many fighters, leaving their naked flesh to be eaten by dogs and carrion birds, as the will of Zeus was accomplished. Begin at the time…
The primary is over here in Illinois. The gubernatorial primary ended with the incumbent Governor Rauner victorious over Jeanne Ives. Ives, a West Point Graduate, a female-warrior, brought a warm, steely, fundamentalist authenticity to the camera. I liked her at a emotional level while being terrified of her intentions. Rauner on the other hand…
Received an email from a friend yesterday informing me of his enthusiasm for Antonio Damasio’s book, The Strange Order of Things. The work is about the importance of story telling. To say that story telling is important is to greatly underestimate the matter. I do not think it is possible to understand how our…
I am reading a book by Omar El Akkad. He is a journalist. He was born in Cairo Egypt and grew up in Doha, Qatar. He has filed dispatches from the NATO led war in Afghanistan, the military trials at Guantanamo Bay, the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt and the Black Lives Matter movement…
In the Lord of the Rings story by JRR Tolkien, the cartoon version has a scene of orc infantry being marched to war. While supervised by an officer wielding a whip they sing, “Don’t want to go to war today,–but where there’s a whip there is a way.” The scene came to mind as…
Yeah, I know the title is out of character. Those who know me recognize that I do not routinely use such language. I would bet you a large sum of money that the family members of the 17 murdered at Florida’s Douglas High School are thinking and speaking in these terms. Their grief is…
Ran out of time this morning to post any thoughts. Only had an hour, part of which was spent reading Standing by Words, by Wendell Berry, and part was spent chatting with Reno. Then off to my first work appointment of the day. I was in a funk on a sunny Friday. Felt like…
Yesterday, I arrived at Starbucks at my customary time of 7AM. The evening snowfall was ending and the roads were treacherous. The parking lot was not plowed. I was the only customer in sight. Several staff had arrived and were preparing for the morning rush. I offered to grab a snow shovel to clear…
