The controversy rolls on in reference to the President’s profane characterization of the inhabitants of Haiti and of the African nations. Today when questioned the Secretary of DHS Kristen Nielsen said that she did not hear the vulgar language that others heard the President say. She was in the room. All she heard was…
It is snowing outside. The streets are hazardous for travel. Hawaii is recovering from a false alarm of a ballistic missile attack. Our President is tweeting madly to deflect the response to his comments characterizing Africa and Haiti as “shit-hole” countries. Individuals who happened to be in proximity to him when he made the…
I’ve been looking at the box of books on my “to read” list. I buy books, one or even two or three at a time. One book leads to another and another. This has been the story of my life for many years. I have subjects of interest that I’ve revisited over and over,…
Here I am twelve hours later at Starbucks, 4PM. I awakened at 4AM giving up on the endeavor of normal sleep, acceding to my restlessness. I got up, and read for a while; then prepared for a day of work. Was it the late evening cup of caffeinated coffee? Maybe the excitement of our…
A well without water. A bird that can’t fly. An alley with no exit. And— —excerpt from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
We’ve got gluts of information but are dizzy for lack of a norm. The norms of capitalism, friendship, and religion: everything is so provisional, situational, optional, such a matter of lifestyle choice that the very word “norm” is likely to victimize somebody. Our magnetic field is dislocated; gravity itself seems weakened. But weightlessness is…
I have friends who believe that strict adherence to a strict interpretation of the US Constitution is all that is needed to fix what is wrong with our society. I resist that position on many accounts. A visceral scream rises within my psyche at this proposal. That notion is the analogue of the Biblical…
Language is a gift as dangerous to humanity as the horse was to the Trojans: it offers itself to our use free of charge, but once we accept it, it colonizes us. The symbolic order emerges from a gift, an offering, that marks its content as neutral in order to pose as a gift:…
Wednesday is another gray day. It is somewhat warmer, 18 degrees. It is snowing outside. A giant nor’easter is hammering the east coast today with wind, freezing rain and ice from Florida to the Carolinas. The meteorologists are warning of up to six inches of snow into New England. Climate change, what climate change…..?…
Reflection for a new year We mistake what is manageable for a catastrophe; we despair of ourselves too soon; we alienate others by overreacting; we don’t notice and appreciate what there is still to be grateful for; we forget we’re going to die and that a lot of today’s headache will soon be forgotten….
