Category Archives: Uncategorized

The simple, banal, ordinary. Perhaps the least exciting is the most fulfilling. Excitement may be simply an exclamation point calling attention to what came before and after the exceptional. When life bubbles with activity that disappears with every instant, important … Continue reading →

I can imagine interviewing each visitor to this blog. I would ask for narrative snapshot of their lives…where they were born, where they grew up, what they remember most vividly about their early lives, their parents’ political views, their religious … Continue reading →

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that describes the behavior of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information … Continue reading →

Wind seems to have fled from my location. There is no wind. Not even a little. Where could it have gone? Will it ever return? How does one measure the absence of wind? +++ Early mornings have become cluttered with … Continue reading →

Imagine yourself sitting one evening on a big flat rock high above the slow-moving water of the Mississippi River. As the air cools, you feel a gentle wind against your face. Suddenly, the wind grows much stronger; you reach out … Continue reading →

Certain ideas can be so powerful, so beautiful, that merely thinking about them can bring one to grateful tears. Of course, in order for tears to fall, the mind that thinks about those powerful ideas must be open to their … Continue reading →

The hour I spent writing when I arose early this morning was time I needed to release steam from a sealed container.  Had I let the words that gathered there metastasize into sharp sentences and fierce paragraphs, the container could … Continue reading →

I’ve been drawing a blank about what to write this morning. Everything that comes to mind would require far too much time and energy and would leave me and anyone reading my words angry and depressed. Finally, I decided I … Continue reading →

Nothing in the news moves me. I am not sure that it is because I do not care or I have come to realize how I feel about the news does not matter. Perhaps both. And more. Reading the news … Continue reading →

The person peering at you when you look in the mirror is not the same person who looks back at you from a photograph of your face. I prefer the mirror’s version of myself. It is hard to pin down … Continue reading →

Augmenting upsetting news with information that brings a smile to one’s face is not enough to erase the damage done to one’s psyche by the former. The only way to eliminate the injury done—and the psychological scars left—by exposure to … Continue reading →

Years ago—it must be close to 25 years, maybe more—I had the great good fortune of making a trip to Australia and New Zealand. The whirlwind experience took my late wife and me on very short visits—between one and three … Continue reading →

Some concepts are subject to generational evaporation. For example, the idea that a person can “cherish” or be cherished. Baby Boomers, as a group, understand it. If for no other reason the 1966 tune written by Terry Kirkman and recorded … Continue reading →

Early this morning, I came across a brief discussion of the Gabriel García Márquez novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, which has been described as among the “supreme achievements in world literature.” Though I have long known of the novel, … Continue reading →

The complexity of our planet and everything on it is beyond comprehension. Looking out my window at the bark on tree branches thirty feet in the air, I see grey and light green lichens or fungus or moss—I guess. And … Continue reading →

Yesterday afternoon’s weather was close to perfect. Clear skies, the temperature ideally suited to sitting outside on the deck, soaking in early November’s version of the beauty of the forest…it is a shame the experience cannot be captured and lived … Continue reading →

Space exploration is viewed by many people as a wasteful endeavor. The money and effort spent going to the moon and Mars and beyond, they believe, should be spent solving problems of poverty, climate change, etc., etc. Though I understand … Continue reading →

The cat woke me around 4; I finally got up at 5 and fed her. She has since disappeared; no yowling, no ripping through the house and sliding into walls in her frenzy to escape some imaginary predator. On the … Continue reading →

Today is my late sister’s birthday. My late brother’s birthday was in the second week of September. Lately, everywhere I turn I learn of the death of acquaintances, some very casual and others I knew better. And, of course, the … Continue reading →

At what cost? That question is posed in so many circumstances it becomes almost meaningless. But in practical terms, it is far from irrelevant. Some examples might highlight the point: We might save the planet from irreversible, catastrophic warming, but … Continue reading →

Until this morning, I could not understand why some people get so wrapped up in television and film. Wrapped up to such an extent that people probe details about the actors’ and authors’ lives, and other matters so far removed … Continue reading →

Demons. We read about or hear about or even talk about people whose troubled lives are attributed to psychological (or, some say, spiritual) demons, but what, exactly, are those so-called demons? The definitions are almost boundless; it seems everyone has … Continue reading →

This morning I am experiencing the first truly unpleasant case of heartburn/indigestion I have had in quite some time. Two Tums may have toned it down just a touch, but not enough. Pizza (again) last night is to blame; I … Continue reading →

An article on the NPR website, written by Manuela López Restrepo, delivers less than I expected. Titled, How many friends do Americans have? A survey crunched the numbers, I expected the article to offer a serious—if probably incomplete—exploration of friendship. … Continue reading →

Suddenly, an individual’s world can become a swirling, chaotic, endless nightmare. One must feel pandemonium wash over one’s entire life experience, the horror so deep and terrifying that it is like drowning in an inescapable ocean of raw fear. How … Continue reading →