Americans, myself included, believe that slavery ended with the conclusion of the Civil War. There is a shop in St. Joseph, Bound For Freedom. The phrase refers to the underground railroad, the route north taken by escaped slaves. The Bound For Freedom shop offers “fair trade” items produced by individuals in third world countries. …
Lake Michigan, the five great lakes are inland seas. The imagination fails at the immensity of the amount of fresh water, 21 percent by volume of the world’s surface fresh water. While wading on a sand bar at the edge of Lake Michigan my attention was drawn by the sand that enveloped each step. …
It is a delight to travel. I’m in Michigan wine country, just outside of St. Joseph. With a brief two hour drive, the big city of Chicago is west of us. Benton Harbor and St. Joseph are situated on the other side of great Lake Michigan. The environment of soil and weather and proximity…
Aristotle wrote in his Ethics that the end purpose of philosophy is purposeful action. Disciplined thinking is essential to living well, deciding what action to take. And since to be human is to be a social creature, we make innumerable decisions that materially affect the lives of others. A group of us met last…
Tuesday morning, and I have nothing in particular to say. A few interesting stories are on the front page of the New York Times. None of that affects me, at least not yet. Up until quite recently, say the last one hundred years, nothing that occurred outside of your village had an impact on…
It is raining hard, a deluge for the past 20 minutes. At 6AM this morning upon waking there were signs that the downpour, with thunder and lightening of the early morning hours had passed. The sky was much lighter, and nothing was falling, the birds were singing. Standing in my driveway I encountered a…
One final musing from my Summerfest experience. We typically take one of the festival shuttles into Milwaukee’s Maer Festival Park. Leaving our vehicle at the Ryan Park and Ride lot saves the trouble of dealing with city traffic, as well as finding and paying for parking. One pays the bus driver $7 for the…
Maybe you’ve never been to Summerfest in Milwaukee? Today is the final day of the eleven day festival on the Lake Front. I’ve attended Summerfest for many years. The event is comprised of thousands of fellow Americans. Americans from a kaleidoscope of ethnic backgrounds, ways of life, and taste in music. For the price…
Yes, we are going again. Summerfest Milwaukee will be the destination for the afternoon and evening. We hope to experience the music of Dennis DeYoung and Styx at 10PM tonight. The atmospherics will crackle with the electricity of sensuality, of reality, of life and death as DeYoung performs his lyrics of Lady, and Come…
I Hear America Singing. I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready…
