Park on Park is the name of the Mundelein car show that is held on the 2nd Wednesday evening of the summer months. Street rods, collectible cars of all descriptions are parked on and around Park Avenue for the admiration of gear heads like myself. As I grow older with every visit to a…
Can you think of anything more yummy than a bowl of cherries? Maybe it has been a very long time since you’ve tasted fresh cherries in springtime. When we become adult we tend not to indulge ourselves in such ordinary, and natural experiences of joy. Our minds are seduced by things more abstract, and…
I confess to being a fan of Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen is the Homer of my generation. I make the assertion without apology. At the Tony Awards televised live on CBS from Radio City Music Hall Springsteen delivered an abbreviated rendition of his song My Hometown which was prefaced by a moving soliloquy remembering Freehold…
A friend just sent me additional photos of the Teton mountains. Everything in each of the three photos is magnificent. It is light that enables me to make this statement. Light streaming from the sun sculpted the magisterial peaks due to heat and cold, and wind-driven erosion. Light energized photosynthesis for the spruce, the…
Waking I took the measure of my blood sugar. 50 mg/dcl was quite low, a partial explanation for my mental fog. NPR reported the death of Anthony Bourdain at 61 years of age this morning. My sense of malaise deepened. Bourdain was a superb story teller, a man who appreciated the rapture of fine…
Doing philosophy is a revolutionary activity. In these times of discord, suspicion, verbal assault, and sometimes overt expression of hatred–anyone who disciplines him or herself to mindfully exercise reason, speaking and writing with clarity is a subversive. Nothing is more antithetical to the mayhem, the pandemonium of “warfare,” than thoughtful communication. A family member…
Family is not limited to those related by blood. I understand that more deeply as the years pass. The circle may be wide to include friends whose stories intersect our own. Each child that is born and welcomed into the family circle is a reminder of the generosity of heart and congeniality of spirit…
While living in the suburbs I seldom go into Chicago. Every place in northern Illinois is within the orbit of the city, one of the most populous in the country with 9.5 million people. The scale of the city causes discomfort. I have a sensation of 360 degrees of thinly veiled chaos when I…
We attended a Memorial Day ceremony in Beach Park. I did my best to enjoy it. It always seems tragically sad to remember those who died prematurely in unnecessary wars. I consider the Vietnam War and all of those since, including those underway,–unnecessary. To disregard the evidence of your own senses, and to believe…
Saturday was dedicated to putting in the garden. The patch of ground was broken a few times with the assist of a power tiller. I was grateful for the powered help. A neighbor who owns a horse farm was kind to allow me to obtain a sufficient quantity of barn manure for fertilizer. The…
