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...
Category: reflections
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...
What I Hope–and Fear
I hope there will be a great coming together of society, as people from all walks of life realize that we are all in this together. We leave the world a better ...
What if…
What if we helped each other? What if there were no bullshit jobs? What if health care, sick leave, insurance, retirement, …, weren’t tied to your e...
Garbage-In, Garbage-Out
Here’s a logic puzzle for you. If testing for COVID-19 only if another test for COVID-19 is positive, when do you ever test? Answer: you don’t. Luck...
Personal Hygiene is Public Hygiene
Isn’t it remarkable how the recommendations for what to do if you get sick are basically the same regardless of the cause? Wash your hands. Don’t pi...
A Simple Rate Tweak Should Do It
Last week, the Federal Reserve and others lowered interest rates in an attempt to counteract the effects of COVID-19 on the economy. Also last week, The Economi...
Don’t Panic
It may be this is the End of Days, or it may not. We shall see, though it has certainly looked like this century has been rhyming with the last since at least 2...
Thou Preparest a Table Before Me
Last Sunday, the pastor of Freedom Plains Presbyterian Church asked for help cleaning the tiny cups used for Communion. They’d switched to glass, or back ...
Living on Margin
Instant gratification is made possible by just-in-time delivery. What if just-in-time never arrives? I have four eggs left in the refrigerator and half a gallon...
Echoes of Holy Wisdom
What we can do with physics and math–and curiosity–is awe-inspiring. Natural light moving across the surfaces of marble and gold causes glitter that...
What Practice?
Doesn’t this miss the point? Tenzin Priyadarshi, a Buddhist monk and the CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. To auto...
Pride Goeth Before
Most of us find it hard to admit mistakes. Was the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak worsened because admitting the scope of the problem, or that a problem even e...
There’s a World Outside Your Window
Look. Bit of a thunderstorm this morning. All that rain drumming on the roof suggested I stay in bed, so I made oatmeal for breakfast. Just before sitting down ...