Author Archives: John Swinburn

The 2023 hurricane season begins today, June 1. The names awaiting assignment to potentially deadly storms for the season are: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harold, Idalia, Jose, Katia, Lee, Margot, Nigel, Ophelia, Philippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince … Continue reading →

Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change. ~ Muhammad Ali ~ I remember a time when I found Muhammad Ali (formerly known as Cassius Clay) insufferably arrogant. And I still … Continue reading →

Politicians are carriers of infectious psychiatric pathology. They harbor ideas and attitudes that cause stress in their constituents. It is informative to note that carriers need not suffer from the infection themselves; politicians, therefore, may not suffer the miseries they … Continue reading →

News about yesterday’s partial collapse of a six-story apartment building in Davenport, Iowa caused me to have concern about the people affected by the collapse and sparked memories of our road trip last September. As we drove along the Great … Continue reading →

A cone of patchouli incense. A desire to feel the comforting embrace of universal peace. A seemingly endless supply of low-level anxiety. A sense of the presence of perpetual background noise, like radio static. This chaotic mix defines a tiny … Continue reading →

Though the “official” Memorial Day “holiday” is still two days away, I am thinking about it now. A post I wrote eight years ago still represents my thinking about Memorial Day: Memorial Day is dedicated to the men and women … Continue reading →

The urge to be creative rises and falls in an unpredictable pattern. A relatively recent spike in that urge in me—rekindled by viewing several finished products on walls—honed in on stained glass. As I skimmed a craft catalogue—my growing current … Continue reading →

If I were to write what is on my mind this morning, the smoldering screed produced by my fingers on the keyboard would almost certainly erupt in a mighty explosion, spreading a fiery tornadic wind throughout the cosmos. Planets would … Continue reading →

I write this well after 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday night. Normally, I would be sleeping—or trying to sleep—by now. But I feel moderately wired at the moment; maybe even considerably wired. There’s no obvious reason for the fact that my … Continue reading →

A grey area. An imprecise piece of intellectual real estate where contradictory answers to the same question may be absolutely correct. Like the shoreline defined differently, depending on the tide, morality’s grey area follows the ebb and flow of philosophical … Continue reading →

The post-sermon conversation yesterday was thought-provoking. I listened, mostly, but I asked a question as well: where does guilt fit into ideas about mercy? And what about forgiveness? Is forgiveness a necessary component of mercy, or can mercy be bestowed … Continue reading →

Cloudy, humid, still, and cool. Those adjectives describe the weather in Helen, Georgia this morning. The weather in this Bavarian-style mountain town is delightful this morning, if reports delivered from my desktop can be trusted. But the temperature where I … Continue reading →

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. ~ Plato ~ +++ “La lutta continua. The struggle continues.” So spoke Salman Rushdie Thursday … Continue reading →

I may begin setting an alarm. I lost almost two precious hours of pre-dawn brooding reflection to shallow—but dream-laden—sleep. Again. This has happened too often of late. I may have to eschew medicinal gummies; while I cannot attribute all of … Continue reading →

When the nighttime conspires with insomnia to erase comfort, the only refuge is an occasional, fitful moment of stolen sleep. During those brief periods of unconsciousness, dreams tend to interrupt relief, relentlessly pounding tranquility until it finally surrenders. Then, in … Continue reading →

Last night’s game of trivia (an event held to generate funds for the Friends of the Coronado Center Library) clarified, for me, the way my mind works. Or doesn’t. While I had no idea about the answers to some of … Continue reading →

As I skimmed the Associated Press website this morning, I encountered a page with a section devoted to “shootings.”  For just a moment, I was stunned that an entire section of a website would be dedicated to a summary of … Continue reading →

Experiencing different cultures expands the mind and opens the heart. Whether the cultures are as starkly different as rural South Texas and urban Beijing or as similar as Dallas and Little Rock, the cultural distinctions educate, inform, and change a … Continue reading →

I have written many times, over the years, about Ray Oldenburg’s concept of the Third Place., informal public gathering areas that offer comfort, camaraderie, and emotional safety. The Brookings Institute says this about third Places: Urban planners seeking to stabilize neighborhoods … Continue reading →

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already in widespread use. In multiple automotive applications. In HVAC system thermostats. Virtual assistants, like the Amazon Echo. Global positioning system technologies. Computerized language translation systems. Email spam filters. Automated house floor maintenance devices. Facial recognition … Continue reading →

Supposedly open-minded progressives who deride conservatives about their “conservative hypocrisy” sometimes seem blind to their own bigotry. For example, it is not hard to find staunch liberals—blue through and through—who label Texas and Texans right-wing hypocrites. Or they may call … Continue reading →

Exceptionally heavy rain pounds the roof, its sound dominating the roar of thunder. Occasional flashes of dim, distant lightning periodically illuminate the room. Twice, the background noise of wind and rain and water flowing through gutters and downspouts, though loud, … Continue reading →

I did not feel compelled to write a post yesterday morning, though late in the day I almost gave in to my self-imposed guilt at my lapse.  That irrational idea was relatively short-lived, though. But it occurred to me that … Continue reading →

I left yesterday’s church service (at Miami Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship)—during which Peter Mayer delivered both his music and an inspirational “sermon”—feeling hopeful and optimistic. The subsequent barrage of horrifying news since then has squelched that emotional high. Another mass … Continue reading →

Last night, we attended a musical performance by Peter Mayer, well-known in Unitarian Universalist (UU) circles for both his songwriting and his voice. We learned of the event, organized and offered by the Miami Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, by accident … Continue reading →