Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
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 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 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 …
NOVEMBER 29, 2021 – Yesterday our son and daughter-in-law took us on an excursion between their hometown of Chester and down river to Essex, Connecticut. We took side routes and backroads for a closer look at this old part of New England. Our trip included breakfast at The Whistle Stop café, a cozy, local establishment …
NOVEMBER 26, 2021 – To earn my keep yesterday, I did three things: 1. Hiked down to the end of the town (Chester, CT) and back; 2. Assisted our son Byron in his leaf harvest; and 3. Manually washed an “infinity collection” of food preparation and serving dishes too large and numerous for the dishwasher, …
NOVEMBER 25, 2021 – Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. First, its centerpiece is culinary abundance, and at the center of the centerpiece is a stuffed turkey, my favorite land-based food. Second, I enjoy the story of the Original Feast, which occurred exactly four centuries ago this year. However mythicized and romanticized, it’s a …
NOVEMBER 23, 2021 – Yesterday my wife and I were among the millions of Thanksgiving week air-travelers. From MSP to BDL, we experienced no bumps, not even over the Great Lakes. After a smooth flight, the three-point landing couldn’t have been executed more cleanly. “Nice landing,” I said to the captain as we exited the …
NOVEMBER 20, 2021 – Posting a zinger-critique of America’s baggage seems no more useful than a fugitive analyzing tire pressure of an escape vehicle. Yet, ostrich antics won’t work either. Reality persists, watched or not. What do we do? What our species has always done: bequeath to youth. They will inherit the earth. They will …
NOVEMBER 19, 2021 – Simon Winchester wrote a book entitled, The Perfectionists, an interesting work about precision engineering. In the world of machines and micro-machines, precision to the nth-degree marks the difference between function and failure. Perfection applies with equal force to many fields, from music to medicine. It even rules in the practice of …
NOVEMBER 15, 2021 – Yesterday, on my own initiative, I watched several quarters of televised NFL games, half-time talk by commentators, and post-game chatter by Aaron Rodgers. For me this was a first—I’d never turned on the TV and searched for a football game. My new, strange (for me) diversion is an effort to share …
NOVEMBER 13, 2021 – In despair yesterday evening, I read disturbing articles about the three big issues of our times: climate change, the pandemic, and crass threats of violence in rightwing American political rhetoric. And yes, I pled “guilty as charged” for having broken isolation from “breaking news.” (The relapse was temporary, I assure you.) …
NOVEMBER 10, 2021 – Yesterday I sent a mail-in ballot for three seats on a corporate board. In my pre-evolution years I threw such ballots in the trash (the times having pre-dated recycling as well as evolution). Now “evolved,” I voted against myself . . . Four candidates are running for three seats. The incumbents …
NOVEMBER 8, 2021 – Over the weekend, I stapled bud caps onto another 400 white pine seedlings and saplings in the “tree garden” up at the lake. It’s been an annual project since I manually planted a few hundred seedlings in woodland acreage that’d been harvested seven years ago. The work is necessary to protect …
NOVEMBER 7, 2021 – When I was circumnavigating the globe, there weren’t such things as smartphones or the public internet. For travel information I relied on a collection of guidebooks published by Lonely Planet. That name seemed inapt, for though I traveled alone, I never felt lonely—because I traveled alone and was therefore more likely …
NOVEMBER 2, 2021 – One of the joys of having our six-year-old granddaughter visit is teaching her to pronounce, “Paganini.” This was in answer to her question, “What’s the music in the cat video?” The “cat video” is Fantasia dei Gatti (“Fantasia of the Cats”), a cartoon produced by Augustin Hadelich, the Italian-born/reared son of …
NOVEMBER 1, 2021 – Yesterday’s Times included the review of a “big picture” book, just released, written by British anthropologist David Wengrow and the late American anthropologist (and “anarchy activist”) David Graeber. By “big picture” I don’t mean large illustration. I mean a book that makes you question what billions of us have taken for …
OCTOBER 30, 2021 – Perhaps now I really have “recalibrated.” Or maybe my nearly two-month “news” blackout is simply working: once a news junkie, I no longer feel a craving for inconclusive . . . noise. But more is afoot here, I think. It’s called aging, not simply in a physical sense but psychologically, along …
OCTOBER 23, 2021 – Recently, I’ve witnessed fear and suffering—up close and personal. I’ve also seen hope and kindness that confirm my faith in humanity. When peering into a matter of life and death, the existence or non-existence of “God” enter one’s thoughts. After the crisis passes, one contemplates the “Great Power” from multiple perspectives …
OCTOBER 17, 2021 – For many people, Covid has confined our travel space. For example, over two years have now passed since I took a plane flight. Not since my pre-teen years have I gone so long not going far, at least by air. This relative confinement has sharpened my awareness of a grand paradox …
OCTOBER 12, 2021 – Late yesterday I drove from the Red Cabin back to home in the cities. Full darkness descended as I entered the final leg of my journey—a busy highway linking suburbs of the eastern half of the Twin Cities. Swept into frenetic traffic, I stole a skyward glance and caught a glimpse …
OCTOBER 11, 2021 – Yesterday I didn’t encounter another human being. I stayed “on premises,” pulling our dock and lift out of the water and storing the components on shore for the winter. It’s a complex operation, and not wishing to over-tax my body, I took things slowly and deployed lots of “wheels” (logs) and …