Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
FEBRUARY 16, 2020 – Political campaigns promote many ideas for perfecting the world. In our more lucid moments, we know perfection is elusive, but the appeal of universal justice, health care, and prosperity is intoxicating. Though we don’t have a snowball’s chance in Minnesota today of achieving universal perfection, I’ve had three experiences that suggest …
FEBRUARY 15, 2020 – In every era society faces two over-arching questions: 1. What’s happening? and 2. What should be done about it? In the current era, people have ready but competing answers to the second question. These prescriptions, however, turn on the answer to the first question, and again, everyone knows exactly what’s happening. …
FEBRUARY 11, 2020 – As the sun rose yesterday morning, it revealed a spectacular display of mid-winter hoarfrost. When I rushed out the back doorway to catch my bus, the beauty was at its peak. An inner voice urged me to return, change into ski clothes and head for “Little Switzerland” to take “Ooo, Ahhh!” …
FEBRUARY 9, 2020 – When I was in law school, I had a legal-writing professor whose class was a real downer. At the outset of every session, he’d walk to the chalkboard, pick up a stick of chalk and write across the board, “THERE IS NO JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD.” I thought this was a …
FEBRUARY 7, 2020 – Wednesday brought speeches by democracy’s heroes, Senators Jones and Romney, followed by the death knell of democracy—Trump’s acquittal. Thursday brought Trump’s unbridled hate and vindictiveness. For a man who can’t distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, God from the devil, Trump’s condemnation of House Democrats as “evil” was the penultimate …
FEBRUARY 3, 2020 – I grew up in a household in which organized sports were frowned upon, and the more highly organized the sport, the greater the frown. Our dad was the frowner in chief. He loved books, art, classical music, and was reliably skeptical of whatever attracted the masses. Sports qualified as a “masses …
JANUARY 14, 2020 – This is my 250th blog post. At 500 words per post, the cumulative total equals 125,000 words. My brother-in-law’s memoir—yet to be published—comes in at around 150,000. Fifty more blog posts and my total collection will attain equivalency with his memoir . . . in quantity, anyway. As I hiked back …
JANUARY 1, 2020 – Happy New Year! May the Year of Perfect Vision bring all of us good cheer, excellent health, rewarding encounters, happy relationships and abundant prosperity! Now to get down to the hard work of bringing those objectives to fruition. For my own little world I’ve devised a list of New Year’s Resolutions …
DECEMBER 31, 2019 – This last day of 2019 prompts reflection about the past 12 months. In cosmic terms, this occasion is fairly hum-drum. Strike “fairly.” From a human perspective, it’s arbitrary. The demarcation between “old year” and “new year” could be established at any time in the earth’s revolution around its star. It’s a …
December 26, 2019 – ‘Twas a whirlwind—planning, scheduling, shopping, decorating, wrapping, unwrapping, cooking, baking, eating, driving, drinking, visiting, entertaining, game-playing. The Big Holiday has passed, and people have scattered. With the memories fresh, I reflect on certain encounters during the festivities. I feel myself shedding the chains of ignorance and the blinders of biases. The …
DECEMBER 25, 2019 – (excerpted from Inheritance – A Memoir) “Hey! You’re supposed to be asleep!” he said in an excited, half-whisper. “We [he always used the royal “we”] spent all day at Santa’s workshop. He asked about you and your sisters, and we said, ‘The sisters are all good little girls—but Eric—well, he’s a …
DECEMBER 23, 2019 – In the lead-up to my fourth Christmas, our dad read every word of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to our entire family. During each session, which seemed like an eternity, Mother, my sisters, and I sat perfectly still while Dad read the classic tale. Later, he bought an LP version of …
DECEMBER 22, 2019 – On Thursday our younger and his wife flew to Minnesota to help us celebrate Christmas. In anticipation of their arrival, my wife worked her usual home decoration miracles, inside and out. The centerpiece is a beautifully trimmed Tannenbaum. I was quite content to defer to her sensibilities and wallow in the …
DECEMBER 16, 2019 – You’ll be shocked to learn that I’m currently in . . . prison. Or maybe you’re not surprised. As some of you already know, my wife was sentenced a few weeks ago. Our crimes? “Circulating among humanity.” Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe that such an offense could be a …
DECEMBER 11, 2019 – Yesterday at 5:30 p.m. while I shivered at my bus stop, I checked the temperature on my phone: 4F. To my relief, the 5:35 bus appeared right on time. The commute the evening before had been a different story. Through new snow, buses on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis had crawled …
DECEMBER 1, 2019 – Yesterday evening while my poor wife coughed at home, I ventured to Pantages Theater in Minneapolis for Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Christmas. It was a brilliant show: Rich Dworsky at the piano, with the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band; Tim Russell and Sue Scott as “the voices”; Fred Newman at sound …
NOVEMBER 29, 2019 – When I first heard Art Garfunkel’s song, “(What a) Wonderful World,” I thought the lyrics were kind of dumb. Now that the aging process has introduced me to my own (multiple forms of) dumbness, I realize that in a back-handed, unintentional way, the song serves as a kind of paean to …
NOVEMBER 27, 2019 – Less than a month ’til Christmas. Given the overnight blizzard, Thanksgiving in these parts, at least, will be a white one. Oops! I hear disapproving groans over “Christmas” in place of “December 25” and “Thanksgiving” instead of “Genocide Memorial Day.” Know that my own relationship with religion (and revisionist history?) is …
NOVEMBER 23, 2019 – If you’ve read any of my previous three posts, you know I’ve been “up north” tending to my trees—a kind of rehab operation for a veritable, and once incorrigible political junkie. The retreet—I mean retreat—involved 48 hours of sequestration from the woes of civilization and quality time among a few hundred …
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 – I remember the fall day decades ago. It was just before noon as I walked from my office building—the First National Bank Building in downtown St. Paul—to the St. Paul Athletic Club, where I launched my daily (running) workout. Next to the club was a parking lot, and standing there were …
NOVEMBER 18, 2019 – I wonder what my father, an arch conservative who died in 2010, would’ve thought about Trump. Dad never ever voted for a Democrat. I’m sure he wouldn’t have voted for Hillary in 2016, and I know he would’ve dismissed out of hand, every Democrat seeking the presidency in 2020. However, I …
NOVEMBER 13, 2019 – My friends who support Trump offer the following reasons: Tax cuts; Deregulation; Court appointees; Attempted invasion by illegal immigrants; Democrats are so corrupt. Among my Trumpster friends, their pick of the foregoing reasons outweighs Trump’s “unlikability.” Meanwhile, friends who share my disdain for Trump struggle to explain his support. The most …
NOVEMBER 10, 2019 – I’m angered, saddened, humored, flummoxed, flabbergasted, and fascinated by Facebook. To roil me further, someone reminded me recently that “What you see on Facebook is not the same as what I see on Facebook.” Compared to most active FB users, I don’t have a lot of friends (383, according to FB, …
NOVEMBER 7, 2019 – I’m lucky to have traveled round the globe, literally, crisscrossing oceans, continents, the equator, the Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn. Whenever possible I’ve looked out the window of car, train, ship, and plane. On foot, bike or skis, I’ve peered as far and wide as I …
Blogger’s Note: Of 182 posts to date, this is the first to exceed the self-imposed cap of 500 words. It will remain the exception. In the writer’s opinion, slavish adherence to the rule, even via serialization, would detract from the story. NOVEMBER 4, 2019 – This past weekend up at the Red Cabin, I sifted …