Category Archives: Philosophy

Love Letters

Posted on March 28, 2020 by John Swinburn

I tend to keep personal letters I receive in the mail, whether handwritten or typewritten. Maybe my practice is driven by their rarity. Or perhaps they offer evidence someone thought I was worth the time and energy required to write … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Just Thinking, Philosophy | 2 Comments

Dimensions

Posted on March 25, 2020 by John Swinburn

I tell myself I am not superstitious. I say I dismiss the concept that coincidences have “meaning.” There is absolutely no reason to believe that, when I think about a person with enough focus, enough intensity, that person will reciprocate … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideas, Intellect, Philosophy | Leave a comment

What I am Learning, Even Today, from Steinbeck

Posted on March 22, 2020 by John Swinburn

The Grapes of Wrath. I remember (though indistinctly, as if through a heavy fog) reading Steinbeck’s classic novel depicting the struggles of Depression-era Dust Bowl migrations. What I remember clearly about the story, though, is the intensity of Jim Casy’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | 2 Comments

Confronting Two Enemies

Posted on March 14, 2020 by John Swinburn

In the wake of a growing concern about a mysterious disease, when will a gnawing worry evolve into fear? What incident will cause fear to mushroom into terror, breeding deep suspicion of anyone outside our immediate circle? At what point … Continue reading →

Posted in Covid-19, Depression, Health, Hope, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Musings on Politics, People, Society, and the Almost Certainly Impossible

Posted on March 3, 2020 by John Swinburn

I do not worry that electing a left-leaning candidate like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would lead to economic catastrophe. Nor do I worry that electing a centrist like Biden would embed a Republican-light approach to government for the foreseeable … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Politics | Leave a comment

Perils of Finding Solace in Food

Posted on February 29, 2020 by John Swinburn

When my concerns are too personal and too emotional to share with those closest to me—even with myself—I tend to turn my thoughts to food. It’s no mistake that the word “comfort” is so often associated with food. Whether a … Continue reading →

Posted in Emotion, Food, Pain, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Here and Now

Posted on February 28, 2020 by John Swinburn

Time and distance no longer matter when the only moment is now and the only place is here. Memories lose their grip on the soul at that juncture. All existence takes place in the present; neither the past nor the … Continue reading →

Posted in Peace, Philosophy, Serenity | Leave a comment

A Fleeting Period of Perpetual Rain

Posted on February 12, 2020 by John Swinburn

Endless sunshine always is interrupted by fleeting periods of perpetual rain. The weather has always been this way. The everlasting pattern of dark and wet, then bright and dry, will continue forever, until it ends. Everything is impermanent and has … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Weather | Leave a comment

The Question is a Serpent

Posted on February 5, 2020 by John Swinburn

Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life I ask myself the question over and over and over and over, hoping to one day find an answer: “Who am I, under the veneer?” It hasn’t even been a … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Ruminations | Leave a comment

Along the Bloody Spectrum

Posted on January 29, 2020 by John Swinburn

I am an old infidel. A practicing heathen. A believer in knowledge and a follower of facts. Those truths notwithstanding, I am no longer the active antagonist toward religion I once was. There was a time I would have called … Continue reading →

Posted in Peace, Philosophy, Religion | Leave a comment

A Course in Catching Fish

Posted on January 28, 2020 by John Swinburn

My blog has long since become too voluminous for me to be able to determine whether I have already written about any given topic. In all probability, whatever the topic, I have. But my memory of having written about a … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | 3 Comments

Mediterranean Course Correction

Posted on January 12, 2020 by John Swinburn

I inquired of Google this morning: “What is the Mediterranean lifestyle?” The first answer I found—and the one I intend on adapting as my own—was this, from a blog entitled, The Mediterranean Dish in a post labeled Live the Mediterranean … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Compassion, Doing Without, Empathy, Essay, Generosity, Philosophy, Ruminations, Self-discipline, Selfishness | Leave a comment

Through the Mist

Posted on January 7, 2020 by John Swinburn

I feel slightly more human this morning than I’ve felt the last few days. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, though. Feeling human means something different for me than it once did. No longer is it a matter of … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Philosophy, Religion | 2 Comments

Modesty or Something Like It

Posted on December 15, 2019 by John Swinburn

Am I being modest when I insist on wearing a shirt to the door when I answer a knock? Or is the issue really embarrassment at my physical appearance? I suppose I could try to imagine that I inhabit a … Continue reading →

Posted in Essay, Nudity, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Transformative Places

Posted on December 8, 2019 by John Swinburn

Wherever we go, when we settle in we take on attributes caused by the place. We change, at least a little, to reflect the way a place we live changes us. And often, maybe usually, we don’t recognize the change … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Essay, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Scale

Posted on November 26, 2019 by John Swinburn

A July 23, 2003 article in The Telegraph touches on the scope of what we see through telescopes in a clear, dark night sky: There are 10 times more stars in the night sky than grains of sand in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Leave a comment

Keepers of Private Notebooks

Posted on November 4, 2019 by John Swinburn

Yesterday, I read parts of something Joan Didion wrote in 1968, entitled, “On Keeping a Notebook.”  One excerpt in particular struck a chord with me: Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Writing | Leave a comment

On Time

Posted on October 9, 2019 by John Swinburn

Days race by, behaving as if the clock hurries to complete its tasks quickly, lest time render the hands of the clock unable to accurately measure the duration of the unfolding of experience. There will come a moment, or perhaps it … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Time | Leave a comment

Adequately Altruistic or Acquisitive

Posted on October 7, 2019 by John Swinburn

Among other difficulties with wealth redistribution programs is the problem that involves reaching agreement on the definitions of two adjectives: “enough” and “too much.” If we could achieve collective accord on what constitutes enough and how much is too much, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Exploring an Empty Barrel

Posted on September 28, 2019 by John Swinburn

I spent part of the last hour of this morning reading bits and pieces of about six months’ worth of newsletters from the Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. I’m not sure just why I found my way there. I started … Continue reading →

Posted in Friendship, Philosophy, Religion, Stream of Consciousness | Leave a comment

Learning Something Every Day

Posted on August 31, 2019 by John Swinburn

I spent much of the day yesterday in tourist-host mode, first accompanying a visiting friend to bathhouse row in Hot Springs, followed by a short stroll along Central Avenue, popping into a few shops and otherwise behaving as a tourist … Continue reading →

Posted in Friendship, History, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Compensatory Existence

Posted on August 30, 2019 by John Swinburn

I compensate for my shortcomings. If I can. And it’s not always possible. Sometimes, my shortcomings are so extensive, so overwhelming, that it’s simply impossible to overcome them. It feels like I’m trying to perform an appendectomy on an uncooperative … Continue reading →

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My Children

Posted on August 24, 2019 by John Swinburn

Until last night, I’d never thought of what my child might have been like, had I fathered children. I’d never even thought about the “what if” before. Whether a daughter or a son, I’d never considered another human being carrying … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy, Philosophy | Leave a comment

Intellectual Refraction

Posted on August 16, 2019 by John Swinburn

My college sociology classes exposed me to concepts of social deviance I had never encountered in the “real world.” Once exposed to those concepts, I looked at the world through a different set of eyes. No longer could behaviors be … Continue reading →

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When Is It Wrong to Ask Questions and Express Opinions?

Posted on July 22, 2019 by John Swinburn

A dust-up occurred earlier this year among certain people of influence in the loosely-woven halls of power of a minor religious denomination that I choose not to name. The brouhaha erupted over publication of an essay that recounted a woman’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | 2 Comments