THE SOIL…is the great connector of lives,the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by whichdisease passes into health, age into youth,death into life. Without proper care for it we can have nocommunity, because without proper carefor it we can have no life. — Wendell Berry
When I was younger I was fascinated by the city. I grew up in a what was then a small town in North Carolina. I remember riding my bike into town as a kid. The scale of a small town is dwarfed by that of a city. I have lived outside of Chicago for…
It is midweek, Wednesday. Today I have a early appointment with my primary care physician. I will be cleared for surgery on Wednesday of the coming week. My eyesight is in need of surgical attention, the consequences of age and diabetes. I did not understand the meaning of having a body that is subject…
I have little to say this morning. That is as it should be. Life is replete with conflict, language games, reportage contending for the apex of one’s attention. Often, better that less or nothing be said, — silence is the condition for reflection, a quieting of awareness so that the dispersed energies of life…
Sunday is the aftermath of Senate approval of the 1.9 trillion aid package for a battered national. No republican senator voted for the bill. It stands to reason that many are destitute with no remaining options, — food and shelter balanced on the knife-edge of being called back to the workplace after long months…
But tell me, my brethren, what the child can do, which even the lion could not do? Why hath the preying lion still to become a child? Innocence is the child, and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a game, a self-rolling wheel, a first movement, a holy Yea. Aye, for the game of creating, my…
But in the loneliest wilderness happeneth the second metamorphosis: here the spirit becometh a lion; freedom will it capture, and lordship in its own wilderness. Its last Lord it here seeketh: hostile will it be to him, and to its last God; for victory will it struggle with the great dragon. What is the…
Last night the Socrates Café convened once again. The topic of the evening was “self-actualization” a term introduced into public discourse by the psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). Maslow presented a 5 step process, a journey starting from the basic need of food, water, shelter, etc, followed by a safe environment, progressing to the final…
Yesterday we received the first of two vaccinations to immunize us from the coronavirus. We received email notice from the Kane County Health Department that an appointment was offered. I felt a reaction of relief, of thanksgiving. Upon receiving the Moderna vaccine, if I should become ill, I am unlikely to be hospitalized or…
Wednesday I picked up the latest issue of Adbusters Magazine at Barnes & Noble. It is a Canadian publication with a global range of contributors. The March/April issue is entitled, The New Left. The title succinctly describes the editorial point of view of the publication. The magazine uses graphic design to advantage, to clarify…
