Tuesday, the first of three days of bitter cold. With -3 degrees and a stiff breeze I changed my plans for the morning. On the road in the early morning sun, obliquely illuminating the snow covered fields, the drifts appeared as wind driven wavelets on a frozen lake. Perhaps an image of our lives,…
A blanket of snow, at least six inches covers everything. I imagine that this day could be recognized as a opportunity for the minimum, the most basic of chores, a day for rest and reflection. Not so for us who live in towns and suburbs. A snow fall presents an obstacle to be overcome,…
Certainly one does not put one’s beginnings over the horizon, in the rear view mirror of life. This Sunday morning I awakened early and made my way to Starbucks. Starbucks is the quintessential secular environment. Individuals or clusters of friends, and a few families sip coffee, enjoy a breakfast sandwich while concentrating their attention…
The bitter cold continues. Unaccountably I was not awakened by the alarm this morning. At least I have no memory of shutting the alarm off and returning to sleep. I customarily rise before sunup to begin my day. I enjoy a session of reading and writing to begin a day of activity. It seemed…
The sun is just above the eastern horizon and it’s bitter cold. After a siege of a severe head cold I am beginning to recover. Perhaps. I’ll conserve my strength and allow Nature to advance the recovery. There is only so much that I can do. I offer several quotations that are related. It…
I am feeling feverish this morning with a lingering cold. Snow continues to fall and the roads are a skating rink. I take satisfaction in knowing that Nature overwhelms the best of our engineering, the artificial habitat that we call civilization. Is that “schadenfreude” the pleasure felt at the misfortune of others? Yes, but…
I am reading Bananas, by Peter Chapman, How the United Fruit Company shaped the world. It is a chilling tale of colonization. The colonial power was the United States in the late 1800s, the William McKinley administration, followed by Teddy Roosevelt. How we tend to view our history through rose-colored glasses, giving others and…
The discussion last night dragged on for me. That is unusual. The topic was the relationship between science and wisdom. Science is an institution, and a method that yields knowledge, which defines the 20th and our own 21st century. Certainly from the comments shared among our group there is much controversy, disagreement about what…
I had a dream this morning, likely a few minutes before the alarm was to activate at 6AM. I dreamed of walking in an open field with acquaintances, possibly family. At some distance, a mile or so in the sky a big military tanker plane was making a slow turn. I’ve see such aircraft…
Email from a friend expressing feelings of revulsion at political “leadership.” I felt his pain. Feelings are like the weather. The “weather” of feelings are the swirling impact of feeling upon feeling. Feelings come and go. Feelings pass for “news” in some sectors of the media. Feelings are not news. Feelings pass for “truth”…
