Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JANUARY 2, 2022 – While the mercury flirted with zero-Fahrenheit outside, I binged-watched the eight-episode PBS Masterpiece Theater production, Atlantic Crossing. My executive summary: it’s a . . . masterpiece. The story’s about the Norwegian Royals (King Haakon VII, (a widower after Queen Maud died in 1938); Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha (Olav’s …
JANUARY 1, 2022 – For me, turning the calendar page this time around contrasts markedly with all prior turns of the annual page. Rather than jotting down the usual wishful resolutions to “do better” in a host of strivings, I’m staggering and stumbling under the load of heavy baggage. Perhaps I’ve been hauling it around …
DECEMBER 31, 2021 – As the world crawls to the finish of 2021, Covid continues its rampage. For two years I’ve held strong opinions about individual and governmental responses to the ongoing crisis. Recently, however, non-scientific facts and observations of human nature have forced me to reassess. Foremost among “non-scientific facts” and “observations” is sharpened …
DECEMBER 30, 2021 – Lately, for mental health, I’ve pursued various diversions. The motivation isn’t vacant distraction but a compulsive search for perspective. Trouble is, I’m not sure if “perspective” means getting or giving. At my current juncture in the journey of finite existence, do I strive to impart perspective to loved ones or do …
DECEMBER 29, 2021 – For three evenings of distraction this week, my wife and I watched The Beatles: Get Back. It’s a recently released film about the lead-up to the Beatles’ 1970 album, Let it Be and their last public performance—a 42-minute show on January 30, 1969 atop their Apple Corps headquarters in central London. …
DECEMBER 28, 2021 – Yesterday, I’d just pulled some old journals off my shelf, when friend/neighbor, “K.O.” Paulson stopped by to check on me. I’ve posted about him before—a smart, thoroughly amusing, tough-talking, literary savant/retired honors English teacher, and former baseball/basketball coach, who scouts locally for the Twins. I gave K.O. the current, unvarnished low-down—to …
DECEMBER 27, 2021 – Yesterday, dear friends (fully boostered, with recent negative Covid test results) dropped by for an extended visit. More than a year had passed since our last in-person encounter. For three hours we caught up on family life and talked some about the state of the world. I’ve known Liz since she …
DECEMBER 26, 2021 – Yesterday, my wife and I “celebrated” Christmas alone, with limited, indirect contact with the outside world. After a delectable mid-afternoon dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and rolls with butter and honey, I continued my “sift and sort” operation focused on lots of ancient paperwork; all part of the bigger …
DECEMBER 25, 2021 – My mother, who exercised her faith . . . religiously . . . once said, “It’s all in the hymns. All you need to know is in the hymns.” It was an off-handed remark expressed in the moment, not some serious conclusion resulting from a long course of study. Doubtless she …
DECEMBER 24, 2021 – On this Christmas Eve I write with greater urgency than ever before. If great theoretical physicists and mathematicians play with the science of time and great philosophers and theologians wrestle with a metaphysical construct of time, each of us must face the hard-edged reality of time. A cosmic force beyond our …
DECEMBER 23, 2021 – Recently, we took our six-year-old granddaughter on a driving tour of local, outdoor Christmas lighting displays. There were the usual “icicles” and the new-fangled “dripping” lights; inflated Santas, looking slightly drunk as they swayed in the artificial wind of their internal fans; life-size Nutcracker soldiers of heavy plastic; lights wrapped around …
DECEMBER 22, 2021 – It became a family Christmas legend—me eating ornaments and landing in the hospital. No one could later remember the year. I figure it was 1956. First, I was old enough to have sufficient reference points to remember salient details of the story. Second, I wasn’t old enough to have known better …
DECEMBER 21, 2021 – I wish that I’d been more attentive, more “in tune,” as it were, with the humanitarian genius with whom I was breaking bread and sharing stories. I’m not much sure of the details, except that Yo-Yo Ma was in town performing with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and given my sister/brother-in-law’s …
DECEMBER 20, 2021 – “Because it’s there.” That was the reason George Leigh Mallory gave for his ill-fated attempt to conquer Mt. Everest in 1924. The phrase is often attributed to New Zealander Sir Edmund Hilary, who, in 1953, with Tibetan Tenzing Norgay, reached where no one had gone before: the summit of earth’s highest …
DECEMBER 19, 2021 – I’m a person who’s strongly affected by the amount of daily sunlight. At this time of year (northern hemisphere), I struggle to climb out of bed before our late-rising star, and when Helios calls it a day at the end of his short, low-riding, chariot ride, I’m psychologically ill-prepared. It’s only …
DECEMBER 18, 2021 – Yesterday I got sidetracked by a PBS series about the War of 1812—the “Forgotten War,” more forgotten than the other “Forgotten War,” which, you’ll remember, was the “Korean War.” Even as an undergraduate history major, I emerged from college without much memory of what’s also called the Second American Revolution, more …
DECEMBER 17, 2021 – As I lie low with The Blasted Cough, and no holiday visitors are expected at our hearth this year, we’re not buying a cut-from-the earth Christmas tree. What’s ironic is that by my latest count, we have 17 “pretend” Christmas trees on display—not including the flat, felt tree (which our granddaughter …
DECEMBER 16, 2021 – My first glimpse of the Vale of Kashmir surpassed what the guidebooks had promised—blossoming fruit trees on the shores of Dal Lake, the glistening Himalayas jutting into blue infinity above the world. I stayed for only three weeks, but the memories are as vivid today as my actual experiences were that …
DECEMBER 15, 2021 – No “unified theory” exists for explaining the contradictions that define humanity. And yet . . . maybe a central truth resides within our species. I’ve always been a true believer in Santa Claus, and I’m scandalized by people who would punch him in the face. Today’s issue of The New York …
DECEMBER 14, 2021 – One of the biggest Wow! moments occurred aboard a city bus in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. After buying a ticket for two kopecks, I boarded the bus, handed the driver my ticket, and stepped down the aisle to an empty seat a few rows back. As I turned and faced …
DECEMBER 13, 2021 – It’s time to face the inevitable imperative of down-sizing. It’s time to quit talking about “stuff” and start doing something about it. First, let’s define “stuff.” Of course there’s generic stuff—in my case, for example, there’s ancient ski equipment and . . . especially, scrap lumber that will surely fulfill a …
DECEMBER 12, 2021 – When I saw the photos of destruction in the path of The Great Tornadoes, I wondered if we can find common ground in the wake of such wholesale destruction; ground from which can sow and cultivate a modicum of unity that has eluded us for nearly a generation. Perhaps a nation …
DECEMBER 11, 2021 – As part of yesterday’s distraction from The Cough [cough, sputter, cough], I watched the 1994 film, Wyatt Earp, starring Mr. West Man, Kevin Costner. I didn’t catch all of the three-hour movie, despite the production having won an Oscar for Best Cinematography. Nevertheless, I drew perspective from a chapter of America’s …
DECEMBER 10 , 2021 – I’m no different from anyone else. Exposed to “nonsense” on my smartphone screen, I react with, “How can that be?!” To recover my equilibrium, I do the smart thing: I put the dumb phone aside and follow more constructive pursuits. For example, I’ll watch a Netfix documentary about Ella Fitzgerald. …
DECEMBER 9, 2021 – Recently I gained some investment guidance and insight into politics when I visited . . . the doctor. After dispensing with medical advice my doc answered a general question about the Omicron variant. He’s highly educated, well-read, well-informed. In both mainstream media and medical literature, he’d read the latest news on …