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…
For who has despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plumbline in the hand of Zerubbabel; these seven are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth. —Zechariah 4:10 I’ve not lost my mind. I seldom quote verses of scripture. In…
There was no way this well could be so deep. —excerpt The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami I will offer my thoughts on the Women’s March of 2018. We are into the 2nd year of the Trump Administration. This is the second Women’s March. The march of 2017 came the day after his…
A prominent feature of a mass demonstration are the signs. Most are conceived, constructed, and hand-lettered/drawn by individuals. The signs are an enduring appeal to anyone who is within viewing distance. Signs are a persistent assertion of the objectives of the individuals who are compelled to raise their voices in the public square and…
