Curiosity has ceased. Contemplation has set in.
I’m traveling…er no…got in last night. Late. Jet lagged to nth degree…coffee… This is a repost. ———————————- My cousin said to me a few weeks before she died, “When I come back I’m going to do it...
View ArticleBe Local. Be moral.
We have a strong “Buy Local” movement here in Portland. I support the effort. If possible, I spend my dollars within walking distance of home. It is how I invest in my community. It’s like attending...
View ArticleSunday Repost: Woof, Woof. Bark.
I was at a book reading a few evenings ago. Two rows in front of me sat a woman and next to her, on its own seat, perched an ivory-colored terrier. The dog was well-behaved and I was enjoying her...
View ArticlePinsky, Hegel, Nietzsche, Chatwin, & Faulkner
The poet Robert Pinsky made a comment I noted in my journal: “Will your children’s grandchildren remember your name?” What a plague is this question! It burrows to the core of the most tender...
View ArticleFirst Sentences of Philosophy
If you were a book, your opening sentence would be my first impression of you. It is that type-set handshake, that eye contact, the initial body language of our literary relationship, from which I will...
View ArticleDa Capo
The neuro-chemical thing has worn off and all is again right with the world. That said, it’s a good time to take a little break, a few days away from the desk. The reading is falling behind, the...
View ArticleTwo things I’m no longer interested in.
The philosopher’s robe. The heavy baggage goes first. I’m tired and worn out and now grown weary of (at least) two long-standing philosophical quests: pursuit of “the self”–as in, Know Thyself–as well...
View ArticleRay Bradbury, Nietzsche, a New Year, and How to Live. Whew!
Did you read the Sunday Time’s magazine last Sunday? It is the annual “The Lives They Lived” issue. As you might imagine, for a guy who’s spent a lot of time working on the project How Best To Live,...
View ArticleThe Grand Canyon and other philosophies
The Grand Canyon I’ve been engaged the last couple years in correspondence with a young man in prison. He is a family friend who made a bad decision. He has a bent for big ideas so naturally the two...
View Article“It is a question of understanding my destiny.”
In the fog. (Photo by author) The quote above is lifted from an entry in Kierkegaard’s journal. Here’s the fragment I jotted down in my notebook: “What I really need is to be clear about what I am to...
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