Written January 14th, 2017 Quite randomly today, while searching YouTube for some interesting content to investigate, I stumbled across a surprisingly engaging TED Talk video titled “The Transformative Power of Classical Music”, given by Benjamin Zander, a Classical conductor and music teacher and I admit to being quite blown...

Written April 4th, 2010 “We are living in a difficult time, and whatever defends us from the madhouse can be applauded as good enough – for those without nerve.” That line was taken from Joseph Campbell’s “Myth’s to Live By”, a book I read in my early twenties, which...

Written November 6th, 2016 I knew the odds were in my favor. After several years of watching for the signs, I’ve developed a keen eye for the way the sky settles down for the evening. I was simply working in the yard and noticed the clouds forming nicely and...

Written September 20th, 2019 Once again Maria Popova has ‘strung a knot in my mind’, to quote a favorite line from Bob Dylan’s “Restless Farewell.” Her website, brainpickings.org is a treasure-trove of articles on many of my favorite subjects and heroes, with each article being a written exposition on...

Written July 29th, 2017 While working on a new painting tonight, casually listening to music through my earbuds, as is usual, I heard the first few notes of the song and immediately smiled with recognition. I know the song well and certainly the aesthetic weight it carries for me,...

Written April 17th, 2016 The photo pierces a sensitive spot, to say the least, in both execution and subject matter (click the photo to enlarge). The weathered dignity from this lone, imposing warrior of the African savannah, whose life-sized photo is positioned among the filth and decay of what...

Written June 23rd, 2009 It was Nietzsche who said: “Be careful, lest in casting out your demons you exorcise the best thing in you.” I have not been able to locate the exact book this quote derives from, but I’m fairly sure the context was his critique of “sin”,...

This is one of my favorite essays, and that stretches back across 30 plus years now. It goes without saying that I was moved by the film, but my intuition about it’s core meaning, elaborated at the end of this piece, I believe few people caught. I mention that...

Written June 26th, 2020 Domestication: “Starting when we are very young, we are presented with either a reward or a punishment for adopting the beliefs and behaviors of what others find acceptable. When we adopt these beliefs and behaviors as a result of either the reward or punishment, we...

Written October 19th, 2019 In his book “Anam Cara”, the Irish Poet, John O’Donohue, made an astutely aesthetic observation that I simply must mention here. Truth be told, the book is full of such observations and would require that I spill a lot of ink to mention them all....