December 21st, I was inclined to make a fire in our fire pit. Then I learned that we were to attend a holiday party with old friends in another town. The enjoyment of open fire, heat emanating from burning wood, the glow of embers, pungent rising smoke into the inky sky, was delayed. Maybe…
So, you’d like to be a writer? Start keeping a journal. Everyday write something. Even if, and especially if it’s raw, words that can’t be polished, that take heroic effort to release and get down on the page. No matter how disjointed, incoherent, unappealing your emotional storms may be, –do your best to find…
This morning there’s little in mind. A lingering memory from yesterday; the image of a Republican lawyer at the impeachment hearings in Washington. The man speaking to a struck-dumb, packed hearing room said the president had nothing in mind, no intention, when he had the phone conversation with the President of Ukraine, Zelinsky. The…
…in his or her own way of course. As you’d expect, I continue to read Slavoj Zizek — with more care the second time around. The European intellectual wrestles with the problem that confounds me: how to address a virulent ethnic hatred that matastasizes as a ravenous cancer in our society. Our President and…
This morning as I opened my browser, this graphic caught my eye. I felt compelled to read the story. The image is of Mount Everest. I have never been a rock climber and I am well past the age to consider climbing a mountain. I thought it common knowledge the Everest was the severest…
The Socrates Café discussion of this past evening was stimulating, open-ended, a probing exploration for a definition of freedom. Our quest to find or to fashion a definition of freedom came from a quotation from a book, “To Fight Against This Age” by Rob Rieman: “He who remains a slave to his desires, emotions,…
How good is any story? Logic dictates that it would be impossible to assess while the story is being created. Only after the finish will someone else, in the telling of the story, know the quality of the tale. Whether something qualifies as a story or not depends upon the teller and the audience…
I did something that I cannot remember doing before. I saw the same movie twice, Ford vs Ferrari which features Matt Damon playing the role of Carroll Shelby and Christian Bale in the role of Ken Miles. The story is a exploration of human nature, the cost of achieving excellence, — an adventure involving…
Just finished my lunch, which was a large Macintosh apple sliced and a generous dollop of peanut butter on a paper plate. I have reason to believe this is a well loved menu option for older guys. My friend Mike, at Starbucks this morning conveyed to me his satisfaction with making peanut butter the…
I do not know much about gods; but I think that the riverIs a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable,Patient to some degree, at first recognized as a frontier;Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce;Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgottenBy the dwellers…
