Category Archives: Ruminations

Let’s say you are responsible for naming newborn triplets, all boys. Which trio of names would be more likely to cause turmoil: Mark, Michael, and Genghis or  Hephaestus, Zeus, and Genghis? Ah, your answer may rely on logic, an irrelevant characteristic in a chaotic world.

Procrastination is the province of a fool, one whose face I sometimes see in the mirror.

I happened upon a website dedicated to the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). The site bills itself as “A Quaker Lobby in the Public Interest.” Generally speaking, I am solidly opposed to any religious group attempting to exercise its … Continue reading →

If you watch a squirrel for an entire day, jumping from tree to tree and then spending a moment or two on the ground and scurrying up another tree, you may notice something important. The squirrel never pauses to watch a reality show. Never. … Continue reading →

Labels, especially political labels, cover warts and scabs—even open wounds—like ill-fitting artificial skin that traps flesh-eating bacteria beneath it.  Yet if we apply labels like band-aids, we allow ourselves to be defined by them.  

Let someone else define you and you’ll forever be a slave to another’s assessment. Define yourself and you’ll know, at least, you are authentic. It is hard to face a world in which collective perspectives become cash, the only currency … Continue reading →

Disparate ideas churn like leaves in a whirlwind, spinning tighter and closer together until they become a cohesive thought, an intent, a plan, and, finally, an action.

It is important, on occasion, to break out of the habit of looking inward to view oneself from another’s perspective. That jarring sight isn’t necessarily pretty, but it is informative and, perhaps, instructive. It’s like looking in the mirror, expecting to see … Continue reading →

The beauty I find in this morning’s air, and in the way the light struggles to overtake darkness, correlates directly with the beauty I see in people I love, people I miss, people I find attractive. The beauty in the world around us, even … Continue reading →

Confidence suggests belief in oneself, yet belief is only one element of reaching for the next rung on the ladder, whatever that rung might be. The other element is the willingness to risk that belief through action; taking the risk, … Continue reading →

Most of us are born with 270 bones (some people claim the number to be as high as 305), but by adulthood we have only 206 left. According to what I’ve read, the diminution in number results from bones fusing … Continue reading →

The rhythm of breath is impossible. Nothing can be so constant, so unwavering, as the breath from one’s lungs. It is simply inconceivable; nothing can maintain that perpetual pace without pause. Except, perhaps, the beating of the heart. Or the eye’s … Continue reading →

Who the hell was this Gregory fellow, the ne’er-do-well who introduced us to the Gregorian calendar? I loathe his artificial mechanism for controlling time; it can’t be done, at least not legitimately! He fills my days with appointments, when all I want … Continue reading →

I read that “meditation is a conscious effort to change the way the mind works.” At this very moment, I am sure that is what is required.

If you cry when others don’t, over things that don’t matter to the world around you, look in the mirror and thank the sun and the stars you are not of the world around you.

I stumbled across a Facebook post recently by a woman from Tibet, a woman who grew up in the Buddhist tradition. In the post, she recalled that her grandmother prayed for all sentient beings. I wish I could ask her, or her … Continue reading →

Dignity is more about helping others cope with tragedy than it is about coping with tragedy oneself. I learned that from President Jimmy Carter.

Above me, the skies turned grey and turbulent, roiling clouds drinking in moisture from the surrounding air, behaving like an inveterate alcoholic, sucking in atmospheric humidity as if it were liquor. Suddenly, the visible turbulence of the clouds turned to a solid mass … Continue reading →

For reasons I do not understand, but probably could if I engaged in sufficient self-reflection, I often think of some of the lyrics to a 1968 Jefferson Airplane tune written by Grace Slick: Lather was thirty years old today, And Lather came … Continue reading →

The man’s words came from my brain. “The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them—words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to … Continue reading →

At some point, your rage will simply boomerang and you will have wasted all your energy on a brutal attack on yourself.

I recently skimmed an article that described a room (or was it simply a device?) in which all external noise was filtered out. The only sounds a person inside could hear were the sounds of his own body; heart beating, … Continue reading →

Damn near everything I write is allegorical. I wonder whether that’s an indication I don’t have the fortitude to be forthright?

Dreams unmask fears and hopes and desires. They unleash the heartless monster and the loving humanitarian buried under countless layers of time and tears.

What is it called?  Is there a name for it?  I’m referring to the phenomenon of waking up at 1:35 a.m. and misreading the clock, thinking it’s 5:35 a.m.  Then, getting out of bed, taking the obligatory pee, going to … Continue reading →