We need more geology in school. Or perhaps ecology. Probably both. If we are to survive, we need to understand who and what we are, and for that we need to understand this world that made us. We are earthly beings. We are small parts of a small planet on an average star in the… Continue reading Home Soil
Category: Essays
A Livable Path
I am reading Stan Cox’s The Path to a Livable Future. I will write more on that later. Or maybe I won’t. I haven’t decided yet because I haven’t seen much of this titular path yet, though I am over halfway through the book. He writes quite a lot on the paths that got us… Continue reading A Livable Path
Just… Stop…
While reading an essay narrating another desperate protest by rational people — this time explaining why some UK climate scientists felt driven to glue their bodies to government buildings — I had an epiphany. Not a good one. As I sat there contemplating the lengths that we go to and the relatively meagre results of… Continue reading Just… Stop…
The Dis-utility of Romance
It is May, the delightful season of flowers and birds and bunnies and all sorts of other suggestive displays of fecundity. It is time for the busy-ness of reproduction. It is also time to eat fresh grown food and remove some of the layers of clothing and open the sealed windows to let out months… Continue reading The Dis-utility of Romance
Cinco de Mayo
The problem? How do you mark this day? Most years, I don’t. I’m not Hispanic. My best friend growing up was Mayan and there were complicated feelings about Mexico related to that. I never thought there was much to celebrate. We learned in grade school that it’s a commemoration of a 19th century Mexican victory… Continue reading Cinco de Mayo
Blinkered: On Time and Being
There are not merely seven colors in the rainbow. Have you noticed? Of course, you have in some sense. But have you really noticed. If so, if this is generally noticed, then why do we require every school child to learn this easily disprovable “fact”? We can all see it has no basis. Even its… Continue reading Blinkered: On Time and Being
Religious, Not Especially Spiritual
A Way of Life for Earth Bodies Headline News... We interrupt this meditation on being good to note that being good has responsibilities — including civic, maybe mostly civic, as relation to others is how good is defined. And today is showing that we have quite a lot of work to do. It's time to… Continue reading Religious, Not Especially Spiritual
Religious, Not Especially Spiritual
A Way of Life for Earth Bodies In my continuing examination of life and meaning and ways of being in this world, I have determined that I am the inverse of “spiritual but not religious”. I am religious, but I am not particularly spiritual. Or at least I do not think spirit has much bearing… Continue reading Religious, Not Especially Spiritual
Bealtaine
the thorn queen she waxes full in fertile grace queen of quick and fay, she reigns in mantle green and seemly face quelling fear and mortal pains eternal mother, ever maid undying wisdom in her glance deathless weird is on her laid to spin th' unceasing wheel of chance again, she comes in crown of… Continue reading Bealtaine
False Hopes
Someone who needs hope sent me this video from the Kurzgesagt: In a Nutshell folks. The videos produced by these people are generally slick-production info-tainment, generally STEM focused, generally enjoyable and uplifting… but also often just plain wrong. Or perhaps a better descriptor would be to say that the producers present a limited narrative in… Continue reading False Hopes