“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
It began with the cornfield, I think. It began in Myerstown in the early ‘50’s, among trees and the cornfield to the north where we played hide ‘n seek. That sky over the cornfield. That sky to a little boy. Blue and clouds and wind and light. Running the long alley back and forth. Outside in all weathers. And the long lane that led south directly across from our house. […]
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Cruelty is a curse of our species. Most of us have been subject to it on a personal level and have also been cruel to another with words or actions. In the years I spent volunteering at an animal rescue, I saw the results of awful acts of cruelty performed upon dogs. Whether its cause is a form of original sin, or evidence of our capacity for evil, or an […]
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Hitler and Stalin and Mao were often happy so let’s not kid ourselves into thinking happiness has any value as a moral standard. The suffering of innocent people makes some people happy. Theft, cheating in its many forms, all the vices really, give happiness to more people than we care to think about. Today, on a day when I haven’t hurt another, and when I am not being sought by […]
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It is supposed to have shown itself by now, wisdom, I mean. I’m supposed to be flowering with it, rife with blossoms of wit and aphorisms meant to affirm that I’ve figured somethings out after 7 decades alive. Instead, I find myself thinking that my share of wisdom is here somewhere, maybe like an aquifer, and so perhaps I should look for a spring or even merely a seep where […]
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