Author Archives: John Swinburn

I feed my imagination by subscribing to Family Handyman magazine. When I flip through the pages of the magazine, I dream of producing a wooden sauna or laying a winding, flower-lined brick walkway or building a cavernous workshop filled with … Continue reading →

Planet Earth is a dangerous place. Its dangers are both natural and unnatural. Temporary and eternal. Shying away from danger is understandable, but timidity carries with it unexpected perils. The choices between fear and bravery sometimes blend into indistinguishable options—not … Continue reading →

The bold headline on CNN.com this morning grabbed my attention: One of the most dangerous hours in America is now 11 o’clock on Sunday morning. The story (littered with typos…but that’s another story…) addressed how lay and religious leaders are … Continue reading →

Four Columbian children were found yesterday, forty days after they survived a plane crash that killed their mother and two others. The fierce, unimaginable trauma visited upon those children during their ordeal may one day be revealed in their own … Continue reading →

An inverse relationship exists between the power of the individual and the population of the planet. In other words, as Earth’s population increases, the influence of the individual naturally shrinks. That reduction in individuals’ ability to exercise control or command … Continue reading →

Today is mi novia’s birthday, which of course calls for celebration. The nature of one’s birthday changes over the years. As a child, birthdays are exciting milestones on what seems like an endless march toward adulthood—which is impossibly far away. … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s lunch was excellent; lobster ravioli alongside baked carrot strips, strips of red bell pepper, green beans, and onion. That should have been sufficiently nutritious and satisfying to last the rest of the day. But, no, I had a rather … Continue reading →

Yesterday afternoon, we protected ourselves from the blazing heat by sitting under the fan on the deck. Temperatures hovered around 87°F, but the covered deck and the breeze of the fan made the oppressive heat barely tolerable. Late in the … Continue reading →

No “standard” exists for the size of urban residential lots. I thought one did, in fact, exist. And perhaps one did, at one time, but no longer. And I doubt the “standard” was geographically widespread. My assumption, based on the … Continue reading →

I wonder how common it is for people to ask themselves whether they made any significant contributions to humankind during the course of their lives? The answer could ruin an otherwise perfectly acceptable life-long mood. But the ruinous nature of … Continue reading →

I found this thought-provoking: If you would know a mystic, do not confine your search to monasteries and temples, but look also on the highways and byways, in towns, hamlets, and in the hustle and bustle of the great cosmopolitan … Continue reading →

Today began with uplifting news for a change. I learned that the Edith Kanakaʻole Quarter is now in circulation, a continuation in the American Women QuartersTM Program. Not only did I learn about the new quarter, I learned a little … Continue reading →

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 →