Category Archives: Uncategorized

It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that I may have created a new written language while consciously dreaming. I was disappointed that the English language was so damn complex; so hard to learn. But it wasn’t hard to pronounce; … Continue reading →

Both the “cost of living” and “the cost of staying alive” tend to increase over time. While the rising “cost  of living” initially places negative pressure on meeting “needs” (which often are used interchangeably by people who are financially secure … Continue reading →

Mystery. Unknown. Secret. Hidden. +++ The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in Lake Superior during a monstrous storm on November 10, 1975, was among the largest of an unknown number of ships lost to the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Shipwreck … Continue reading →

A small bird (something like a sparrow I think) discovered that some of the seeds in the bird feeder outside my window are still edible. Shortly thereafter, a cedar waxwing of roughly the same size as the sparrow(?) bullied its … Continue reading →

The seasons of deception are descending on us. Halloween is almost here, a moment when we encourage people to hide their identities by assuming the physical appearance of other…people, animals, monsters, things, places, ideas, etc. Then we have Thanksgiving, when … Continue reading →

This rain on this cool, overcast, dark afternoon is not especially heavy, but it is relentless. Today’s weather could have been imported from the countryside outside a village in England’s Lake District, where people are unafraid of getting wet. At … Continue reading →

Was it just me, or did all of us forget to take a moment earlier this year—on May 18—to observe the 45th anniversary of the cataclysmic eruption of Mount St. Helens? By today’s standards, the records of which seem to … Continue reading →

Word on the street is that a squadron of B-52 bombers took off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana overnight, destined for the Vatican. The Pope, roused from a sound sleep, was informed of both the incursion into the … Continue reading →

Every so often, a few sentences remind me there’s an inscrutable someone behind my frowns and smiles and grimaces. Those words, cobbled into semi-coherent thoughts, leave me a little rattled and hungry to project a permanent poker face. “A highway … Continue reading →

Look at a lush tree or a bush just outside your window. If you focus on a single healthy leaf of that plant for long enough, your mind will follow your eyes across and into it. At first, your gaze … Continue reading →

Artificial Thought Ten years into the evacuation, all that’s left should be an uninhabited planet. And, of course, the ruins of millions of commercial and residential buildings. And sheer desolation. But the exodus stalled around the fifth year. And by … Continue reading →

Sympathy, in the face of indifference, is a squandered emotion. Indifference redefines sympathy, calling it a weakness; a flawed emotional state deserving only disdain and mockery.  Emotions can be fragile states that, in the presence of pressure and contempt, sometimes … Continue reading →

A clear, cloudless night sky looks radically different than the same sky at noon. Sky is defined as the region of the atmosphere visible from Earth’s surface.  But, at night, the atmosphere is not visible from Earth, is it? At … Continue reading →

Inflation is alive and well. The cost of my Medicare supplemental insurance increased by $42 a month; the cost of my prescription drug plan jumped by almost 213%, a $50 hike. Food prices seem to be on an upward trajectory, … Continue reading →

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers. ~ Thomas Pynchon ~ If The Apocalypse were to begin just before 11 one Saturday morning, would we know it? Would we recognize … Continue reading →

I would like to visit the Obama Presidential Center when it is completed, but that wish is complicated by so damn many obstacles.  A piece in today’s New York Times added fuel to my desire to experience, first hand, what … Continue reading →

Much of my “padding” is gone, thanks to significant weight loss over time. Sitting on a wooden bench at the Balboa Marina at lunch yesterday was extremely uncomfortable; there’s essentially no fat to cushion my bony butt from the hard … Continue reading →

The U.S. government and many of the people it represents have long justified the displacement of indigenous peoples in support of westward expansion. The so-called treaties—used as tools during the negotiations to persuade indigenous people to exchange lands east of … Continue reading →

Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be. ~ Miguel de Cervantes ~ Marfa, Texas has occupied my thoughts—off and on—for several days. I suspect … Continue reading →

A recent afternoon, spent listening to a variety of traditional and contemporary classical music, triggered in me a powerful longing for the impossible: a deep emotional and intellectual understanding of the core of the music, the kind of understanding that, … Continue reading →

A correlation exists between a person’s discomfort and his inability to harness coherent thought. The greater the degree of discomfort, the less lucid his thinking. Despite suggestions to the contrary [that irrational thought and ingenuity feed off one another], the … Continue reading →

Mid-October’s cooler temperatures, I hope, will help douse the fiery social and political rages of summer. But the weather, even if it has some impact, will not solve the problems arising from universal fury. If we have a any realistic … Continue reading →

Sometimes, signs pointing to the road to recovery are subject to the mischievous cruelty of vandals. Two days ago, I thought I was on that road. In fact, I was trudging along a country lane that, as I traveled, morphed … Continue reading →

The day began uneventfully yesterday. By 10:00 a.m., though, it began to sour. It got progressively worse—first, mild discomfort, then significant discomfort, then pain, then intense pain. From there it went downhill. I won’t go into the unappetizing details. Suffice … Continue reading →

Pressure. Uninterrupted stress. Tension. Heaviness. Brittle. Fragile. Breakable. Friable. Weight. Even in an environment overburdened with linguistic opportunities, we’re often at a loss for words. So many utterances fail in their efforts to attain man’s search for meaning. Understanding is … Continue reading →