How Do We Sleep While Our Beds Are Burning?
A hazy morning today, like yesterday, here in New York, on the eastern coast of North America. The smoke from the wildfires along the western coast of North Ame...
Category: reflections
Earplugs Removed
I turned off the air-conditioner and opened the windows letting in the air and sounds from outside. The day grew warmer and the house grew hotter, until at nigh...
The War of All Against All
Across the street from where No. 1 Daughter lives, two dogs sat in a closed car. They barked at her when she left for work. They barked at her when she came hom...
Knowing One’s Place
My youngest (12) asked, out of the blue, why do some people want a monarchy when they can’t be the king? I’m not sure. Maybe we should ask the British. I ...
The Sacred Forests of Ethiopia
Here is a sad and hopeful story of the church forests of Ethiopia. The land outside the church forest looks like desolation to me. So stark. Where’s the g...
Bedeviled
The first was that I was very busy.The second — I was different from you: whatever happened to you could not happen to me, not like that.…. “Magdalene — T...
What First Principles?
Tonight’s film was Romero (1989). Earlier this year my eldest and I were talking about a paper due for her international politics class on the Middle East, the ...
Lands Now or Formerly of
Over time I have lived on the lands of Lenape, Mohican, Wappinger, Manahoac, Piscataway, Powhatan, Monacan, Osage, Shawnee, Miami, Adena, Hopewell, and the Chic...
Together Alone
I have been joining in the morning and evening prayers from the garden of Canterbury Cathedral these past several months. Because this is the Internet, and we a...
Think Before You Speak
My mother admonished me to think before I speak, and now sometimes I do. Sometimes I even think before I write, and take a breath, which was good advice I was g...
Should We Talk About the Government?
Every budget is a document of priorities filled with moral and ethical decisions. Every budget is the result of political wrangling over who and what matters. W...
A Song of Grit
What are our guiding precepts? By which lamp do we light our way? Langston Hughes asked a simple question in 1951. What happens to a dream deferred? Langston Hu...
Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face
Heather C. McGhee notes (as heard on the radio) that racism has a cost for everyone. Let me tell two stories from my time in local government. One involves an e...
WWJD?
The execution of Jesus Christ was political murder by the klepto class, done with the force of the state, because he demanded lovingkindness, justice, mercy, an...
Our Elections Make No Sense to Me
I really don’t understand electoral politics, especially the selection of candidates for office and how they are chosen. It’s not the procedure that I don’t und...
Morning on the Porch in Spring
WoodpeckerBright yellow forsythiaSparrow, chickadeeA drop from the gutterAnd this bug that alights on my book,just as I begin to readThe sun warm on my thighs
The Known Unknown
This is the worst game of six degrees of separation ever. Number One Daughter had class with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 virus. She has yet to he...
A Matter of Life and Death
Here’s a purely hypothetical question for you. Let’s suppose you have a certain number of hospital beds and a certain number of ventilators and a ce...
The Plague
Our public library has closed indefinitely, and though I will need to return the large stack of books 📚 I borrowed last month at some point, I do not think I wi...
A Tale of Two Cats
Two cats live with me. One, Lily, is 15; she has been with us since she was weaned, adopted with her brother when my daughters were four and two. Her brother pa...