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Da Capo
“There is properly no history; only biography” ~ Emerson My first choice of reading material has always been biography. The biography holds everything: entertainment, knowledge, history, story-telling,...
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First Sentences – II
“The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at three o’clock.” ~ Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison “Suppose evil scientists removed your...
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a pandemonium of myths…
Nietzsche held that a problem of modernity is that the modern man (and woman) is a “mythless man.” As a result, we take the mundane and lift it to the glorious, making it “shine.” As Julian Young says,...
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Blissful Saturday
I’ve been away all week and the only reading I accomplished was on the plane home from BWI, too tired to pay attention. I was just a robot turning pages. So, I determined that today, after the morning...
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“Inspiration is for amateurs…”
“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.” That’s the artist Chuck Close. I remembered this as I sat down to my computer, lifted my fingers over the keyboard and stared...
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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...
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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...
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Two 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...
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Be 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...
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Ray 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,...
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Sunday 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...
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Pinsky, 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...
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First 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...
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Da 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...
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Two 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 ArticleClik here to view.
Ray 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,...
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The 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...
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“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...
View ArticleMy Summer with Montaigne–“Of Repentance”
“In all affairs, when they are past, however they have turned out, I have little regret.” III.2 Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine that you have come to the end of your life, and as you lie on your...
View ArticleMy Summer with Montaigne—Update.
Montaigne, “the greatest writer of any time, anywhere.” Orson Welles First a little housekeeping. With Labor Day behind us, you are perhaps wondering about my summer project, is it coming to an end?...
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