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, th...
Category: reflections
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, a...
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 donâ€...
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 t...
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...
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...