Just when I think I've got things under control... First, we had a major shuffle at work. Upshot is I've got more hours and a new schedule to figure out. I am the manager of plants now, no staff... except one cat. So there's that. Then I found out that one can not park one's… Continue reading A Forced Hiatus
Gatherers
I’ve been an armchair archeologist/anthropologist for most of my life. I’ve always had a fascination with deep history. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to tease out the Story of Us not mediated through the words of the privileged few; and deep history, pre-history, is where you find the story before it was broken. Further, when… Continue reading Gatherers
Wednesday Word: 6 October 2021
It's dark. I know this happens every year. Intellectually, I am good with the decreasing daylight. I welcome the idea of more time to stew in the starlight, less time of constant chop chop chop in the sun. I welcome the idea... but I'm a bit more conflicted on the practical application. Especially when rain… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 6 October 2021
St Francis of the Birdbath
4 October is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. You might know him as the irreverent but apt moniker, St Francis of the Birdbath, because that is where many of us encounter him. Bare-headed with the monk's tonsure, dressed in rough robes and coarse rope belting, he stands with one palm out, feeding… Continue reading St Francis of the Birdbath
Duality and Reality
I feel like I’ve been working through first principles for a while. But I haven’t covered one big one — dualities. Our propensity to look at the extreme end points of a spectrum and not the entire spectrum. To classify everything as good or bad, when neither actually exists. I think about this quite a… Continue reading Duality and Reality
Wednesday Word: 29 September 2021
The ancient world of the Mediterranean and Near East has a great number of interesting mythological beings. Some are related to old gods and tutelary spirits. Some are fairly accurate illustrations of the anxieties of humankind — or maybe mankind, since women didn't have much of a voice. Some are just ludicrous. One of my… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 29 September 2021
Dialing Back
Beginning today, I'm going to have to pull back from even aspiring for five posts a week. I know you've noticed that I've not been hitting that mark very often of late. This is the official notice that I have to stop even trying. It's not good for me. I wouldn't call it burn-out. I… Continue reading Dialing Back
Invisible Crows
The old lady swept her walk every morning in the dawn light and tended her garden at dusk. She was unknown and unnoticed in the neighborhood. Kept to herself. Smiled at small children and dogs on leashes passing by her gate but did not encourage conversation. She was unremarkable in every way, forgotten as soon… Continue reading Invisible Crows
False Harvest
We often talk about justice in terms of the harvest. There is a certain poetic fitness in this. The work that goes into creating a harvest, the sowing and cultivating, is balanced by a commensurate reward. You get out something proportional to what you put in. When applied literally this reward is nourishment, food —… Continue reading False Harvest
Harvest Fun & Games
There are many games associated with the harvest season. There are the seemingly infinite varieties of grabbing and transporting things without using the hands. I’ve bobbed for apples, passed an orange down the line using just my armpits, transferred raw eggs from one person to another with popsicle sticks, grabbed an apple on a string… Continue reading Harvest Fun & Games
By My Solitary Hearth 