Our culture idolizes youth. The images selected for commercial promotion are adults and children, in the bloom of health, active, energized by joie de vivre, apparently eternally young. The message directly voiced, or indirectly implied is the product under offer, is the secret to this well being. I wish that were true. Last night…
So, do you mean to say, “love thy neighbor as thyself” is the best that we can do for an objective moral principle? Yes. Then it seems that I need to get right to work on better loving myself. Yes.
A spirited discussion developed on the topic of morality. Where does one begin to think about such an expansive idea? A promising launch point was suggested. Morality, what is good, and it’s opposite, is rooted in our visceral response to the external world. In short pleasure is an indication of what is good, and…
Another day, a weirdly warm fifty degrees, but the usual gray for February. Was reflecting upon a meeting with friends last night. I flashed back to the 60s where coffee shops were places for songs of resistance to a war, and for building alternative community. Our colonial forebears likewise met in the public houses…
I am delighted to offer a guest post from a friend, and a fine writer. The choice is perennial and ancient, and as contemporary as that offered to Neo in the Matrix movie, “You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe….
And freedom, oh freedom, well that’s just some people talkin’ A lyric line from the song Desperado by Glenn Frey and Don Henley is how I feel right now. We worship at the Shrine of Freedom in this country. Lately I wonder if there is much behind the curtain. I happily accepted a invitation…
Street violence was reported in Berkeley last night. Riot police, students and tear gas is never a good combination. The cancelled speaker is an editor for the Breitbart News Network, which was headed until recently by a senior Trump advisor. “So now it begins,” I thought upon waking to this news report. A drumbeat…
After two sessions discussing the work and sayings of Albert Einstein, he remains one of my heroes. Einstein is remembered for his worldview altering theories of Special Relativity and General Relativity. The math and the experiments show that space and time and matter and gravity exist in dynamic relationship. Space and time are no…
Last night I attended a concert by a cover band of Eagles music. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to hear The Eagles perform live. That concert and those songs continue to change my life, to be sources of hope. My wife was with me for that event. At the time she…
Sparks fly! I think that I’ve learned as much of life from Rock n Roll as I have from philosophy. The distinction is a false one. The discipline of reflection on the contents of the mind, and attending to the lyrics and tune composed by another, are complementary. Its as if wisdom rises up, …
