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Author Archives: John Swinburn
A Modest List of Things to Do
I have a mental list of things I want or need to do. The problem: the list is mental. An intangible list of things to do can too easily be ignored, overlooked, shuffled and reshuffled, modified, explained away, etc. I … Continue reading
Posted in Procrastination
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December 8: Thoughts for the Day
I can offer hundreds, perhaps thousands, of solutions. The problem is that most of them appear to have no corresponding problems.
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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Pearl Harbor Remembrance
Seventy-three years ago, “…December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” Eighty-one percent of American homes tuned in to … Continue reading
Posted in Peace
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December 7: Thoughts for the Day
The frenzy of youth melts slowly into the inertia of old age. Every step taken to slow the process even more is a step in the right direction.
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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Oh, My Tiki, What Have I Done?
Yesterday was to be a day of finish-up at the pottery studio. A short stint, it was to be, of raku firing my hideous tiki head and glazing my last slab pot. I got it done, but it was no short stint. … Continue reading
Posted in Art
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December 6: Thoughts for the Day
Withdraw from television news, newspaper headlines, and manic-talk radio for a week. Or a month. Or half a year. Focus, instead, on the people around you; their happiness, their comfort.
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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The Newsroom
Thanks to my sister-in-law, I watched the first two episodes of The Newsroom in the last couple of days. Oh my god, what an incredibly riveting program! The writing is superb, the acting excellent, and the story lines are utterly … Continue reading
Posted in Television series
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December 5: Thoughts for the Day
It is so easy to get caught up in emotional responses to events of the day. It’s easy, and it’s dangerous. Intelligent people should recognize when their personal biases and opinions are permitting emotions to trump intellect; they recognize it and … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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Pea Soup
The title refers to the thick fog inside my brain and to the soup outside my windows that makes it impossible to see more than a few feet beyond the windows. As I contemplated what I wanted to write this … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
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December 4: Thoughts for the Day
All it takes is just a little discomfort to burnish the appreciation of comfort to a high shine.
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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Glaze and Fire
I think Robin must have been right; the world is not a just place. If it were, I would have kicked the sick a couple of days ago. Alas, injustice and illness go hand in hand, it seems. I’m better, … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Health
2 Comments
December 3: Thoughts for the Day
Drawing the shades often is the right thing to do, for a lot of reasons, but the decision merits considered thought. When you draw the shades, you block the view in both directions.
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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Leaves
Leaves. They’re everywhere. Floating in the air, blowing along the roadway, scattering from trees like disoriented flocks of large, angry birds. They fill our driveway and our two lots, so many that a thousand large leaf bags would contain only … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
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December 2: Thoughts for the Day
A person who feels vulnerable or fragile is not the best audience for sarcastic jokes.
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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The Real Reason People Like Spectator Sports
I wish I had developed a natural affinity for spectator sports, the national pastimes that tie my countrymen in knots, weave them into a fabric of brotherhood and sisterhood and intimacy that requires no real commitment, just naked, banal lust. … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
3 Comments
Sickish
Even a vague illness can be annoying and disruptive. Yesterday, whatever had been playing with me caught up, effectively knocking me out for the afternoon. I got up long enough to have Thanksgiving dinner number two (my wife roasted a … Continue reading
December 1: Thoughts for the Day
Take care of those nagging doubts as soon as possible; their disappearance from the back of your mind will leave a lot of room.
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Clarity
Occasionally, I see the world through an uncommonly vivid set of lenses. There is greater clarity, more understanding, and considerably deeper appreciation of what is around me. It happens when I read another person’s personal perspectives about the world in which they … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
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November 30: Thoughts for the Day
After today, there will be no more November left for this year. The last vestiges of the month will depart at midnight, never to be seen again except in memory. Eventually, memories of the month will fade and finally vanish. There will … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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Thirsty
The thirst for material goods is both puzzling and understandable. It’s puzzling in that one would think years of unmet promises of happiness offered by material goods would cure us of irrational expectations. It’s understandable in that almost every waking moment we … Continue reading
Posted in Materialism
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November 29: Thoughts for the Day
Intent is merely a loose feather in the wind; action is the wing in flight.
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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Carpe…
A recurring theme in my brain concerns the potential, or lack thereof, to truly understand one’s “real” personality. That’s the one that lives in the core of the mind, the one uncluttered by years of acceding to the expectations of others, the … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Writing
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November 28: Thoughts for the Day
This is the only November 28, 2014 you will ever experience. Celebrate accordingly.
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Celebration
Last year on Thanksgiving Day, I posted a lengthy piece about Thanksgiving, explaining what I’d learned about the genesis and evolution of the holiday. I found the history of the holiday and its traditions quite interesting. And I mentioned that, … Continue reading
Posted in Thanksgiving
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November 27: Thoughts for the Day
There’s always reason to appreciate what we have, who we have close, the good fortune that befalls us, and the misfortune that doesn’t, as clearly expressed below: “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts For the Day
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