Category Archives: Uncategorized

The very first time we open our eyes, after birth, everything in our blurred field of vision is miraculous and new. Opening our eyes is one of the only things we can do on our own at that moment; otherwise, … Continue reading →

A visit to an old cemetery that reached capacity ten ore more generations earlier tells the story of the enduring legacies most of us living today can expect to leave. At most, we will leave a barely discernable name on … Continue reading →

Some days, one’s thoughts are suited to a small, intimate circle. The wider world does not care, nor does it have an investment in knowing, what is on one’s mind. To the world at large, if the world notices at … Continue reading →

Something incomprehensible powers the universe. Perhaps it is the universe itself, the one and only creator and recipient of the effects of perpetual motion. The universe is the only real model of self-creation, self-replication, and self-renewal. The universe created itself … Continue reading →

At my core, I am a tranquil man. Deep inside me, buried beneath the façade of a sometimes explosive temper and an anxious, excitable shell, is a man who attaches great value to serenity; not just for myself, but for … Continue reading →

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice. ~ Henry Louis Gates Jr ~ I absolutely hate finding myself in agreement with anything one might find on Fox News, but that’s the situation in which I find myself with … Continue reading →

Between 1:30 and 4:30 this morning, I felt like I was in limbo, between periods of semi-consciousness and being wide-awake. The whistling, wheezing sounds of my breathing—coupled with constant bothersome aches and cramps in the muscles in my arms and … Continue reading →

No disease is incurable. No injury is too severe to be reversed. We simply lack the knowledge necessary to cure the disease or heal the injury. I believe humans have the capacity to cure—and even to eliminate—every disease. I think … Continue reading →

The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to. It is content with the low places that people disdain. Thus it is like the Tao.     ~ Lao Tzu ~ Lao Tzu, in the Tao Te Ching, … Continue reading →

This image popped up on my computer this morning as a reminder of a time several years past. Though the scene has changed since then, I remember it. My late wife and I were sitting at a window of a … Continue reading →

I’ve somehow wandered into March, directly from December. How in Hell do I find myself in the third month of the year? I am relatively certain that, yesterday, the idea of the year 2022 was a distant absurdity. And now, … Continue reading →

I will ask my brothers and sister , who was I as a child and, later, as a teenager and, later still, a young adult? Was I always as emotionally fragile early on, as I was in my so-called “prime?” … Continue reading →

If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence. ~ Lao Tzu ~ Every moment is both beginning and end. Each instance of the smallest measure of time launches a new experience; at the same … Continue reading →

A friend of mine is off in a few days on a vacation trip of a lifetime. If circumstances cooperate when she visits Norway, she will see the Northern Lights, visit the northern part of the country where she will … Continue reading →

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. ~ Eric Hoffer ~ I have had limited exposure to … Continue reading →

I spend many hours here in my study, deep in the middle of the night, drenched in thought and illuminated only by a lamp that intrudes on darkness. This early morning solitude, wherein with my fingers I engage in make-believe … Continue reading →

Like most Americans, I am not intimately familiar with the political landscape in and around the Ukraine. But I now will become more attuned to what is happening there because Russia has launched a full-scale invasion of the country. My … Continue reading →

Once again, sleeplessness won over rest. I’ve been awake now for an hour, having gotten up just before 3:30. The thoughts running through my mind had nothing to do with the stresses of house renovations. Rather, my thoughts focused on … Continue reading →

Finally, I stayed in bed until 6 this morning, after getting to sleep last night after 11. That’s an abnormally long stretch of sleep for me…though it wasn’t all sleep. Sometime during the wee hours, an intensely loud, grating screech … Continue reading →

Strip away the chain fast food joints, the used car dealerships, and wave after wave after wave of hideous billboards promoting the poverty of mindless consumerism. If there’s anything left, it’s worth a look. Because what is left is the … Continue reading →

The topic of yesterday’s post continues to plague me. Haunt me. Cause me to shiver and wonder whether I am the target of a witch’s demonic spell. What kind of person paints a ceiling dark, drab green? Does such a … Continue reading →

That which renders life burdensome to us generally arises from the abuse of it. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau ~ I wonder whether the Rousseau quotation applies to me. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Rousseau had a negative view of … Continue reading →

After a few days of delightfully comfortable weather, the icy fingers of winter clawed back with a vengeance yesterday afternoon. Today’s high temperature is forecast to reach only 46°F, after a much colder evening. Temperatures are expected to edge back … Continue reading →

Human beings have the capacity to understand and, at the very least, tolerate people who look, speak, or think differently. But that capacity is tested in too few human beings. Instead of treating differences as both interesting and acceptable, humans … Continue reading →

At least I did not get up at 3 this morning. I awoke just after 2, but managed to drift off quite a while later. But I was awake again before 4:30, so I opted to get up for the … Continue reading →