I’ve always loved this Bob Seger song. Written in 1973 it is a mournful elegy to the transitivity of life. Seger reflects upon the day to day experience of being an entertainer. Beneath the glamor, the klieg lights of the big arenas, is the grind, the loneliness inscribed into “the life”. I am reminded…
How pleasant to know that Epicurus is part of our Grecco-Roman heritage. The culture of the West owes a great deal to the intellectual ideals of Greece and Rome. The Epicurean spirit is one of hospitality, of generous invitation. The host and keeper of this place, where you will find the pleasure of the…
I struggle to write this morning. I awakened to the details of the Republican replacement for the ACA. The Affordable Care Act was a work in process, an attempt to blunt the double digit annual increase in health care cost. The measure was a heroic attempt. The real issue always has been and is…
Sloth – Laziness is really fear. We can’t bear to get down to our work, because if we were to apply ourselves, we risk terrifying humiliation. We might not succeed as well as we’d like, we might find a task too hard, we may realise we’re not yet equipped to undertake it or be mocked…
Over the years Don has contended for a thorough going cause/effect description of reality. We’ve enjoyed exchanges exploring the possibility or impossibility of free will. This story is for you, Don. “Explain free will,” I said. “Imagine a copper penny that is exactly like an ordinary penny except that for this discussion it has…
Read this in the NY Times this morning. What would possess us to kill/eliminate/obliterate a species forever?……. Are we mad? SAN FELIPE, Mexico — In the shallow sea waters of the Gulf of California swims a porpoise that few have seen, its numbers dwindling so fast that its very existence is now in peril….
Monday, the work week begins. As usual seated at Starbucks, keyboard at my fingers, I realize that those around me, baristas behind the counter, and the regulars purposely striding in to place their beverage orders, are all connected in a vast network of communication and purpose which we call work. It is a living…
Tuesday evening our Philosophy Discussion Group meets at Beans & Leaves Cafe in Long Grove. Our “launch pad” essay for last night was POLITENESS by Quinn Norton. Quinn Norton is a blogger, journalist, photographer. She comments upon the movements that roil our post-modern, globalized, social world. You may have a look at one of…
Tuesday morning, gray sky, warm and a light rain is falling. Feels like May in late February. Wish that I knew what this radical momentary departure from winter means. Perhaps it means nothing, portends nothing that is to come. After all, it’s weather and weather is change on a daily basis, forgettable. Or maybe…
Another restless night battling this sinus infection. Slept fitfully in the TV room. My condition was not the only thing troubling me. I thought of my co workers, especially the news of a yet to be diagnosed heart condition of one of the men. He is much younger than I. I also could not…
