Years ago I was privileged to spend some time at the Pilchuck School of Glass, an internationally renowned community of artists in hot glass outside of Seattle Washington. Glass blowing is not an artform for the fainthearted. One must stand for hours, drawing molten glass out of a furnace as hot as a volcano. …
Saturday morning after Christmas day. State Street in Geneva is eerily quiet. Traffic is scarce. I’ve never before witnessed this scene of absence. No roaring eighteen-wheelers, vanity pickups and car traffic on this main artery to the bridge over the Fox River. Old buildings stand as a double row of street side tombstones…
It is Christmas Eve. Yesterday the project of the day was gift wrapping. The upstairs filled with the aroma of pumpkin bread, banana bread loaves, baking in the oven. I could hardly leave the gift-prep job to others on the team, since they were doing such a fine job in the kitchen. I wrapped…
As a general rule, I can take “only so much” of Christmas carols. Many I have heard since childhood. I am no longer mystified by the Baby In The Manager story in the same way. I can’t help but think critically about the elements of the story. The problem is not with the story…
A strong faith. I cannot think of a definition, and for the life of me cannot come up with anyone who serves as an example. The occasion for my puzzle was a snippet of television where Robin Roberts announced her intention to visit Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas to interview Joel Osteen this weekend. …
On Borders by Yevgeny Yevtushenko In every border postthere is something insecure.Each one of themis longing for leaves and for flowers.They saythe greatest punishment for a treeis to become a border post.The birds that pause to reston border postscan’t figure outwhat kind of trees they’ve landed on.I supposethat at first, it was people who…
The final gathering for 2019 for our philosophy group took place last night at Taste of Paris in Mundelein. The surprise, unforeseen was that half again as many showed up than had sent me their RSVP of their intentions. A sign that the life of the mind, the tactile experience of exchanging ideas, is…
There is nothing arrogant about mentioning ordinary people’s material concerns: the poor have the right to do it, and to talk about a readiness for great sacrifices, or suffering ‘whatever the price‘, is as a rule the ideology of the privileged, who are quite content to let the people suffer for them. So do…
We have to accept that we live on a ‘Spaceship Earth’ responsible and accountable for its conditions. Earth is no longer the impenetrable background/horizon of our productive activities. It emerges as another finite object that we can inadvertently destroy or transform to make it livable. This means that the very moment we become powerful…
It is my turn. Having read and discussed a number of paragraphs submitted by readers of Philosophy Now Magazine my appreciation grows for the effort put forth by these readers to formulate their ideas on a philosophically interesting question. The variety of approaches is stimulating, a reminder of the suppleness of our minds. No…
