Category Archives: Ruminations

“If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water becomes undrinkable. But if you pour the salt into a river, people can continue to draw the water to cook, wash, and drink. The river is … Continue reading →

Privacy is a shadow. It is the illusion of safety in the midst of terror, the protective shield—shredded into a gauze mesh—before a brilliant spotlight. Privacy is the empty space where freedom of thought can no longer be secured, a protection lost to prying eyes … Continue reading →

Walk in any forest and you will unwittingly scatter forest sprites in your wake. Lest anyone think I have lost my grip on reality, let me quote from a revered source on mythical creatures: Dazzling in color and about the … Continue reading →

Why collect pocket knives if you aren’t going to display them? That’s a question I ask myself on occasion, only to answer, “I don’t really collect pocket knives, I just like to have a dozen or so around so I’ll … Continue reading →

A requisite for inspiration is a conducive attitude.  Absent a welcoming attitude toward creativity and change, inspiration becomes a hammer encased in cement, unable to strike the waiting nail just inches away.

People can ask you questions and you can give them answers, but you can’t force them to learn.

Stray thoughts ricochet like errant bullets, careening wildly as they strike unintended ideas and rip deeply into ill-formed concepts.  Moustache wax becomes mustard gas and candles become combustibles. A thousand tiny copper wires wrapped around one another share a spark intended for … Continue reading →

The first hummingbird of the season visited our hummingbird feeders yesterday. All is right with the world, at least for awhile.  That’s what hummingbird’s do.

Tears are gauges of humanity.  People forced to hide them are barometers of decency. I am afraid for the world; it is becoming an unwelcoming place.

It’s not quite 4:30 a.m. and, again, I’m up for the day.  And my mind is on art. If you’re anything like me, and if you look up “art” in the dictionary (depending on which ones, I suppose), you will … Continue reading →

What is the difference between a response and a reply? Exactly.  And thus I have evidence of subtleties too sophisticated for people like me.

Kindness is not an automatic benevolent behavior. Rather, it takes practice and repetition. It requires regular exercise to fully develop into a disposition. It seems to me that developing a kind disposition is akin to training a dog; it takes … Continue reading →

The rumble of distant thunder roused me from a restless sleep. I turned to look at the clock: three forty-seven. A few minutes later, the rumbles became bone-jarring cracks and flashes of blue and white light lit up the room. The … Continue reading →

The stories we tell ourselves are mirrors. The stories we tell others are masks. But, sometimes, we confuse ourselves about the audiences for our tales, telling ourselves lies and confiding in people we have no business trusting.

As I remember, my habit of using sugar in my iced tea was a brief departure from good taste, perhaps a year or less when I was a child. Today, just the idea of putting sugar—or any sweetener—in tea causes an unpleasant … Continue reading →

The options are to build a bridge, walk across a bridge, or blow up a bridge. Fewer and fewer are willing to build it and meeting someone in the middle conveys weakness. That leaves just one choice.

I light a stick of incense and watch the smoke, in a gyrating dance of slow-motion chaos, rise gently and disappear. The smoke, just a smudge in the air, leaves behind aromatic evidence of sensuality and longing, a search for tranquility … Continue reading →

I wonder if my wife would indulge me by allowing me to experiment with shrimp spring rolls for breakfast one morning soon?  I would have to buy some of the ingredients for the rolls (rice paper wrappers, mint leaves and basil … Continue reading →

I remember staying the night at a bed and breakfast in the New Mexico desert. It was a stout and stately enclave of faded, cracking adobe and distressed cedar, a place rich with the musical traditions of New York. Owned by … Continue reading →

A heavy steel sledgehammer swings with full force, striking a piece of sculpture made of thick strands of gold and yellow and green glass. The glass, woven together in a rich tangle of color and form, is a work of … Continue reading →

The rules of the game purposely befuddle, and they do, with the aim of parting the fool and his money. But when the fool has a mind like a razor and an eponymous implement, the rule maker rightfully trembles.

Imagine yourself in a wet, cold forest. The only green you can see are the few pine trees scattered among the leafless hardwoods.  Everything else around you are shades of brown and muted greys. Naked and alone, you shiver as … Continue reading →

Remember who laughed at you. Only then should you write your will.

Everything is important to somebody. Once that realization sinks it, it’s hard to seriously consider anything trivial. But, still, we do it.  I got word from a friend yesterday that her uncle died, a hard blow, especially for her father. … Continue reading →

If you are willing to learn, you will always be wiser in the next moment than you are now.