LoveLife

Once a month I get a report telling me how many times someone clicked on a post, and a few friends comment from time to time if they feel moved by the subject. It is always nice to hear from friends or strangers, even those offering constructive criticism, but in truth, as I have said before, I write for my own sake--selfish no doubt, but a necessary outlet. Once in a great while it feels like a self-imposed tyranny--the product of writer's block. But most of the time the

We had some new friends over for dinner the other evening, an event that was long overdue. Having settled on a menu I was dragging my feet a bit because I knew it was going to require a lot of prep work and some finicky timing. I know my way around a kitchen and I can follow a recipe but the real joy for me is in the company, and when I choose to cook something that requires my full attention I feel conflicted by my desire to mingle and the dishes insisting I attend to them.

Along with many others we went to see Christopher Nolan's epic film, The Odyssey, the other day. This is not a post about the movie per se but rather about the mirror mass media holds up to us. Before I go off on that tangent, however, let me say that I rarely compare written works to their depiction on Television or the movies. The written word, particularly works of fiction, and I would include Homer's tales in this definition, is expansive and bound, if at all, solely by

Along with several other members of our church outreach commission, we spent a recent Saturday afternoon serving dinner at a local shelter. I mention this not as a form of humble brag--it was a very small service on our part against a far greater need than any of us could fulfill. While we were cleaning up at the end one of the staff mentioned that in his years working at the shelter he had seen the same faces come and go and come again, a never ending circle. He went on t

Once again it is that time of the year when the bounty of our two fig trees has peaked and the morning ritual of removing splatted, half eaten and over ripe fruit from sidewalks and patio has become my daily chore. I like figs, don't get me wrong but the superfluity, especially this year with an abundance of rain followed by brilliant sunny days has resulted in a crop sufficient to feed not a family of squirrels but the entire species. I've tried giving them away, to the poin

For a number of years it was necessary for me to travel extensively for work. In one year alone I was on the road--so to speak --for 201 days. As you might imagine a lot of that time was spent flying from one place to another and I can say without equivocation that I never once felt afraid. I did experience a few bumpy rides, and more than my fair share of delays and bad weather. I even spent a night sleeping in an airport when no hotel rooms were available. Discomfort, t

There's an old joke--stop me if you've heard it. A man comes up to the zen hot dog vendor, hands him twenty dollars and says " make me one with everything." The vendor hands him his dog. The man asks "where's my change"? To which the vendor replies " change must come from within." Ok, so maybe not the funniest joke you've ever heard but this bit of wordplay does have relevance to today's post. Let me start by saying it isn't about a happy thing, in fact it is about a sad m

I wanted to wait till the hubbub was over before posting some thoughts on our 250th anniversary. Several articles I read at the time suggested that most Americans had only a vague idea what was being celebrated, which if true is a sad state of affairs to be sure though I don't wish to dwell on that issue in this post but on the larger frame, the story of the rise and fall of nations. Whether the average American shares the knowledge of our country's founding much less a sens

A recent book club pick,The Memory of an Elephant, had me thinking about a topic on which I have commented in the past, the nature of consciousness. In brief, the story is a fictionalized account of the life of an African elephant from birth to death, as told by the humans with which he interacted and through his own thoughts and memories. While the author clearly took some liberty in ascribing specific thoughts to the central character, ethologists who have studied Elephant

Despite evidence to the contrary, we Americans continue to believe that almost all scientific, technological, and economic development of merit had and continues to have its origins in the US. Our country is regarded by some as preeminent in every endeavor and the quality of our lives vastly better than what might be found in any other nation. Abiding faith in the American way persists even in the midst of a sharp divide in our country regarding its governance and its futur

Maybe it's just me. Over the past year it seems as if every other day a new study reveals that something we regarded as healthy is likely to lead to our premature death and yet another thing we were told would send us to an early grave is the only thing keeping us alive. It's more than confusing, and it got me thinking about what we need to know, and what we should trust. It should come as no surprise that a lot of what makes its way into print, gets covered by radio, TV or

My brain in now totally fried. I've spent the last several days conducting research online for my significant other, and I am now more confused than ever. One of the many claims advocates make regarding online shopping is our ability to obtain very precise information as well as reviews covering any product or service we might wish to purchase. In the old RL (real life) days we would ask a neighbor, relative or perhaps someone we regarded as knowledgeable for their recommenda

An errand the other day to purchase some dish sponges inspired this post. Now I grant that something so inauspicious seems an unlikely topic but stay with me for a bit. These were no ordinary sponges, that would have been too simple. They were a particular type that my significant other prefers and we'd run out of the last of them. I confess its merits were lost on me but we were at loose ends and an excuse to get out of the house was at hand. So, off we trundled to a cer

If you are unfamiliar with the term, it describes an artifact of social media and newsfeeds; an article that lures the unsuspecting reader with a provocative headline in order to increase eyeball count and showcase unrelated advertising. Extravagant claims and absurd premises are nothing new in the advertising realm, those old enough may remember full page ads in popular magazines proclaiming that 9 out of 10 doctors recommend a particular cigarette brand. Today's version mi

For some reason the algorithm that governs what shows up in my feed on one of the few social media sites I routinely visit insists on displaying examples of two opposing views of human behavior. One features a lawn maintenance company that promotes itself by offering to clean up overgrown yards, often belonging to elderly or disabled people. In sped up videos veritable jungles and forests of weeds are returned to suburban order and to be fair there is something very satisfyi

I've never understood the phrase fairytale endings to describe those Hallmark Television like codas where everything works out for the best. Most childhood fairytale I endings I recall were anything but happy. Most were intended to teach a moral or life lesson and the underlying theme was that life was anything but a bowl of cherries. Now I do not watch a lot of commercial television, in fact nothing on the major networks. Much of what I do watch is foreign and unlike the m

In the run up to the midterm elections amidst shifting public sentiment and economic hardship I've been seeing more frequent posts on social media asking how it is possible that people on one side or the other of the political divide continue to subscribe to their partisan views. Posts often describe cult behavior or political echo chambers as the cause but I wonder if those are just facile descriptions rather than explanations. We might not find it flattering, but social sc

The past is confusing. Our memories are unreliable reporters of even recent occurrences. The reconstructions we summon may be embroidered with self serving decoration, regrets, or harsh judgement according to our mood, but seldom do they reveal the dispassionate truth. Dates too are especially squishy, decades sliding back and forth like days, not months or years. We are careless archaeologists unearthing memory's artifacts without regard for their provenance. Hardest of al

Unless you are a confirmed Luddite or living in a cave in an aboriginal state of being, there is a better than even chance you have had an encounter with Tech Support at a consumer electronics company. With the introduction of AI in almost every device--even if it is only for the sake of marketing hype--encounters with one's stove, or refrigerator will soon be next. We can be assured they can and will cease working at some point necessitating a phone call, or worse yet, an o

At the risk of disorienting you dear reader allow me to begin this post with the answer to last week's murder mystery. The culprits, as I have reconstructed the crime scene, were 1) our lawn guy, who in the process of cutting and edging I believe neatly severed the poor mousie's foreparts from his hind. The tip off was that my initial discovery was just the morning after our yard had been mowed. 2) As to how the body got into a garden bed a fair distance away, my current th