Or Would You Rather Be a Fish?
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...
Domestication
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...
Candlelight, and the Caution of Woo Woo
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....
Defiance – Democracy’s Immune System
It’s not my intent to be purposely ‘defiant’ on this 4th of July weekend, I love my country and it’s founding principles as much as anyone, but over the past four years we’ve all seen a fevered, dogmatic version emerge, with heavy doses of Patriotism/Nationalism coursing through the veins...
Of Dragons and Saints
Written February 17th, 2006 I came across quite an interesting convergence of ideas yesterday while re-watching Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth”, the transcendent six episode interview he gave to Bill Moyers. While watching the episode titled, “The Hero’s Adventure”, Campbell explained how the hero’s journey is a consistent...
The Brilliance of Peter Gabriel’s “Biko”
Written July 2nd, 2009 I’m quite sure to be wrong about this, but I don’t recall ever hearing the complete song before. Perhaps over the years I heard snippets and just didn’t fully catalog it to memory. Whatever the reason, I find it odd that I don’t recall it...
It’s All In the Touching
Written February 19th, 2021 I may have mentioned at some point before that I became a fairly late bloomer to the world of ‘books’. I certainly had no interest to read in high school, nor at any point through my teens in general. Most, if not all, of the...
Mozart’s Singing Violins
Written March 26th, 2016 I will admit it now, before going any further, that I know next to nothing about Classical music. The genre simply never found any traction in my aesthetic wheelhouse. Some twenty years ago, I stumbled across the great Cellist, Yo Yo Ma while watching a...
A Dog, a Monk, and a Mystery
Written February 11th, 2017 Many years ago, perhaps as much as twenty-five or more now, while reading one of my many books by Joseph Campbell, I stumbled across a line of thought that has stuck like Velcro from the moment it first crossed my eyes. Campbell was speaking about...
Let’s Be Clear
I wrote this the week it first occurred, but came back to mind during much of the Black Lives Matter protests and the resulting reactions from it this past year. I am posting this with the hope of encouraging a level of equilibrium and rationale back into our patriotic...