Posted May 31, 2018 in Uncategorized

A Rose By Any Other Name

I borrow the title for my article this month from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet uses the phrase to explain why Romeo’s family name does not change his character. Most people know that the play does not end well for Romeo and Juliet, and most people also know that the basic plot […]

Posted October 31, 2017 in Monthly News

Addiction to Being Right and Universal Recovery

In 1991, Edward de Bono published a book that seems to fit the tenor of current times: I Am Right, You Are Wrong. We (humans and probably all mammals) become addicted to patterns of thought. When patterns produce desired results, they are reinforced, making it more likely we will repeat the pattern, which reinforces it—making […]

Posted September 30, 2016 in Monthly News

Human Evolution

Humans like to think of themselves as the “Crown of Creation.” In 1968, Jefferson Airplane captured the irony of the human tendency to presume that we had achieved the pinnacle of the evolutionary process in the song, “Crown of Creation”:

You are the crown of creation. You are the crown of creation, And you’ve […]

Posted June 30, 2016 in Monthly News

Other Plans

John Lennon wrote one of his most famous lines, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” in a song for his son Sean: Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy). Although he wasn’t the first to have that thought (for earlier versions, look here), the Lennon version has become the most quoted, perhaps […]

Posted March 31, 2016 in Uncategorized

Vote II

Those of you who know both Debra and me won’t be surprised to learn that we have different ideas about voting. We agree that politics is “outside the vortex.” My sense is that a lot of life is outside the vortex, from banking and investing to modern techniques of food production.

Nevertheless, I […]

Posted May 31, 2015 in Uncategorized

Changes in Awareness

Charles Dickens opens A Tale of Two Cities with one of the best-known lines in all of English literature:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of […]