Author Archives: John Swinburn

U.S. culture generates an inherent nervousness in us. Fears of judgment, ranging from mild disapproval to rabid condemnation, shape our behaviors. We are an uptight culture, bred to color between the lines and closely observe cultural mores and behave accordingly. … Continue reading →

This morning, when I stand up, I feel slightly dizzy. When I walk, the sensation sometimes gets stronger. The dizziness/weakness may owe its existence to a very tame health-fest yesterday; eating healthy foods, etc. and getting comfortable with a gummy. … Continue reading →

You must be bored to tears. You are here, on this blog, for inexplicable and indefensible reasons. You learn nothing of consequence here. Yet here you are, at least at this moment and for long enough to read these words. … Continue reading →

The murkiness of knowledge bedevils humankind; not because of what it is, but because of the way we define it. One of the principle definitions—which misleads us into misunderstanding—is this: “the fact or state of knowing; the perception of fact … Continue reading →

I never have shot a deer. I never have tried. But I have known people who have known people… And I do again. When I spent a year in grad school, one of my brother’s friends (all of us lived … Continue reading →

Bureaucracy has its limited place—monitoring organizational efforts on accomplishing declared aims; maximizing efficiency of action; preventing misuse of resources; and performing several related functions intended to ensure protecting against harmful deviations from the scope of organizations and projects. That mouthful, … Continue reading →

Shadows result from interrupting light between its source and the target of its illumination, creating dark, two-dimensional silhouettes on a surface. A name given to the process of intentionally creating images—by controlling the distance between the light source and the … Continue reading →

Happy memories remind me who I could have been; painful memories confirm who I am. If the guilt embedded in painful memories could be erased, the memories, too, would disappear. So, any lessons learned from that guilt and those unpleasant … Continue reading →

The early morning sky remains dim and sleepy, waking from a long night. Steamy fog rises from the surface of a pond, blurring the images of egrets and herons standing in the water, just a few feet from shore. The … Continue reading →

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~ Mahatma Gandhi ~ Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld ~ +++ One’s senses can be at odds with one another. … Continue reading →

Roughly fourteen years ago, I published a post on another of my personal blogs (one I have long-since ignored and essentially abandoned). Today, when I returned to that blog and that post, I was reminded that life changes quite a … Continue reading →

You and I are akin to passenger tires in some ways. If we experience some sort of damage, we can be patched in much the same way tires are repaired. Over time, though, the wear and tear of daily experience … Continue reading →

Sanity is a matter of perspective; relative to madness, normalcy, and a cluster of other factors. Behavior often signals insanity, but perfectly normal behavior—accompanied by radically deviant thought—sometimes offers clues to insanity. The term, insanity, is out of favor these … Continue reading →

We cling to one another in the mistaken belief that expressing our collective disappointment will give us a voice to which “they” will listen…as if our little pods of rage and fear will breed in us strength and power. We … Continue reading →

Identical images, seen through the same eyes, evoke radically different emotional responses, depending on the viewer’s frame of mind. In once instance, inconsolable sadness emerges at the sight of a photo of Earth from the International Space Station. Another view … Continue reading →

Ach, the wretched souls who react in terrified deference to monsters who make threats in thundering voices! The poor innocents who fear the oppressors’ spit-shined, steel-toed boots and cringe at the tyrants’ relentless intimidation! The time will come for those … Continue reading →

Artists of all kinds—painters and writers and sculptors and more—can choose freedom. Enjoying the privilege does not require that it be given to them—they do not need benefactors to bestow it upon them.  They can simply seize it. Because they … Continue reading →

On May 4, 1970, on the Kent State University campus, four students died and nine others were wounded (one of whom was permanently paralyzed) when 28 National Guard troops fired 67 rounds at a crowd of unarmed protesters and student … Continue reading →

I have heard variations on the admonition many times. The version that’s most meaningful to me is this: “It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but how you play the hand.” If the game is one you’ve never played—and one … Continue reading →

At long last, the most recent phase of the horror is ending today, Election Day. No one know how long the next phase will last. Will it be only long enough for the most disgusting, corrupt, hateful, amoral, dangerous politician … Continue reading →

Ideas that once seemed interesting, clever, or otherwise intellectually stimulating seem to have grown smelly and stale. They once carried the stimulating aroma of new-mown grass in the Spring. Now, though, they remind me more of the stench of mold; … Continue reading →

We control clocks, but we do not control time. Yet we assume human dominion over clocks is equivalent to temporal sovereignty. It is not. Temporal sovereignty is the exercise of political independence, authority, and control over time, according to Mark … Continue reading →

Today is my late sister’s birthday. She was the eldest of two sisters; the third of six children. Time is a bitter beast that smothers hope; no matter how long or short, in the end time is capricious. Everyone expects … Continue reading →

Until the objects of erasure become deeply personal, they were just things. Or places. Or people. Or the combination of people and places and experiences that defined childhood. Or so many other fragments of one’s life history that can be … Continue reading →

Brief, but brilliant, lightning flashes. Explosive crashes of thunder that seize control of the heavens and roll across the sky. Rain. Plain rain. Just a bit of water to moisten the bone-dry ground. There is no way to know whether … Continue reading →