This past week I've had some disturbing news that I haven't digested yet. Hence, no discussion pertaining to the disturbance. Instead, today I am looking back to a visit not long ago with friends near Nuremberg, Germany. They took me on an auto tour to Regensburg, where the pic of the cafe originated that dates to 1686. On the way to Regensburg, we stopped in a small town called Berching which, it happens boasts a well-known museum pertaining to gems and minerals. Incredibly, the museum had acquired some calcified eons-old fossils of sweetwater fish that were originally found near Green River in Wyoming. The legend says they are fifty million years old.
Because I admire Bill McKibben's unflagging devotion to a cause I ponder often, I joined his group, 350.org and organized "Connect the Dots on Climate Impacts Day" on May 5. We had terrific speakers (not shown), though the turnout was disappointing. Nevertheless, I think it was a small good thing.
As the seat of a conservative state government, Cheyenne isn't exactly a hotbed of progressive ideas. So, our handful of people must be content with small beginnings. Alo, I jumped in at the last m... Continue reading...
What will their future be like? At the end of 2011, CO2 concentrations were roughly 392 ppm, writes Michael Mann. If current trends continue, we will have reached 450 ppm by 2030. This means we will have locked in a warming of the climate that's dangerous far beyond what we have thus far witnessed. Devastating sea level rise, more powerful hurricanes, more widespread drought, and increased weather extremes are the consequences, with terrible impacts on human life and health. We should have s... Continue reading...
Terry Eagleton may be a Marxist, but he also tries to add to the "God Debate" via critique of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion via his 2009 Reason, Faith, and Revolution. I find the book less
convincing than his 2011 Why Marx Was Right, perhaps because the former
consists of lectures sponsored by the Dwight Herrington Terry Foundation at
Yale University, the express purpose of which is “that the Christian spirit may
be nurtured in the fullest light of the world’s knowledge.” Sometime... Continue reading...
It's been three weeks of travel but I am back home. How quickly it's over! And all I can do is marvel how friends these days look like their parents, not like the youngsters I once knew. I too, have changed: I seem to have shrunk, which is obvious only after standing next to a young man I used to know as a kid.
Sad stories, too, have come my way these past weeks: former classmates in ill health, at the hospital, or, worse, dead and gone. On the bright side, I may have contributed to a height... Continue reading...
Considering how often I have pulled up roots to settle in another place, to go on a three-week travel should be no big deal, especially since the places I'll visit are hardly unknown to me--the pictures above are from a visit six years ago to my birthplace, Leipzig. Still, as I am packing to leave for a vacation in Germany, scheduled for March to mitigate altitude-related insomnia, I am hounded by misgivings. As always, the possibility that I might not return cannot be discounted: so many ad... Continue reading...
"My pleasure," someone said recently when I thanked him for an unexpected kindness. I have reflected on that phrase ever since. For one thing, I'm pretty sure his gesture wasn't an unmitigated joy. Id did cost him something: extra time, a bit of inconvenience. Nevertheless, he answered with the courtesy phrase.
Now you may say: It's just an idiom, one of the many sayings that allow human interactions to proceed smoothly. That may be so, but it made me reflect because I had never used the ph... Continue reading...
"I like your essays. You write things that readers want to read," someone in my exercise class said recently about my WTE column. I smiled, remembering how many things I'd written, and attempted to publish, that nobody in the business felt strongly enough about to give me a leg up. An entire manuscript sits on my desktop, ready to go, if things should change. But maybe I learned something from my failures. Maybe I learned to let go of the desire to amount to something in the eyes of family, c... Continue reading...
Fretting about the future is as useless as bemoaning the past; still, as sentient beings we can't help wonder what the future might bring, just as we can't keep ourselves from considering past acts that we might have handled better. As we age, the future is less important for our own existence--we know where we are headed--as it is for the continued existence of a child or grandchild. What does life have in store for this boy twenty years from now, when he'll be in search of a mate and a job...
Sometimes it's necessary to step away from the hubbub created by our social connections. Much as I love family and friends, their sorrows and sadness--and, yes, contentiousness--can get to me. Then I feel as if anything I might try to make things better is not going to amount to anything, for someone else will unravel whatever I'm trying to do.
When this happens, I pick up my guitar and return to the pieces of music I cherish. The above sample was given to me by friends on a visit to Germany.... Continue reading...
Though I now live in Wyoming, I make frequent return trips to California with visits to travel club members along the way. At home I play classical guitar, enjoy gardening and cooking, and participate in group yoga. Getting together with family and friends is high on my agenda. I value people who write or make music and love it when my adult children and their offspring play their instruments, sing songs with me, or discuss what they read and write. Such gatherings help me cope with the losses in my life, which have been severe. Next year I hope to visit family in Germany.
This past week I've had some disturbing news that I haven't digested yet. Hence, no discussion pertaining to the disturbance. Instead, today I am looking back to a visit not long ago with friends near Nuremberg, Germany. They took me on an auto tour to Regensburg, where the pic of the cafe originated that dates to 1686. On the way to Regensburg, we stopped in a small town called Berching which, it happens boasts a well-known museum pertaining to gems and minerals. Incredibly, the museum had acquired some calcified eons-old fossils of sweetwater fish that were originally found near Green River in Wyoming. The legend says they are fifty million years old.
Because I admire Bill McKibben's unflagging devotion to a cause I ponder often, I joined his group, 350.org and organized "Connect the Dots on Climate Impacts Day" on May 5. We had terrific speakers (not shown), though the turnout was disappointing. Nevertheless, I think it was a small good thing. 
What will their future be like? At the end of 2011, CO2 concentrations were roughly 392 ppm, writes Michael Mann. If current trends continue, we will have reached 450 ppm by 2030. This means we will have locked in a warming of the climate that's dangerous far beyond what we have thus far witnessed. Devastating sea level rise, more powerful hurricanes, more widespread drought, and increased weather extremes are the consequences, with terrible impacts on human life and health. We should have s... 
Terry Eagleton may be a Marxist, but he also tries to add to the "God Debate" via critique of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion via his 2009 Reason, Faith, and Revolution. I find the book less
convincing than his 2011 Why Marx Was Right, perhaps because the former
consists of lectures sponsored by the Dwight Herrington Terry Foundation at
Yale University, the express purpose of which is “that the Christian spirit may
be nurtured in the fullest light of the world’s knowledge.” Sometime... 
It's been three weeks of travel but I am back home. How quickly it's over! And all I can do is marvel how friends these days look like their parents, not like the youngsters I once knew. I too, have changed: I seem to have shrunk, which is obvious only after standing next to a young man I used to know as a kid. 
Considering how often I have pulled up roots to settle in another place, to go on a three-week travel should be no big deal, especially since the places I'll visit are hardly unknown to me--the pictures above are from a visit six years ago to my birthplace, Leipzig. Still, as I am packing to leave for a vacation in Germany, scheduled for March to mitigate altitude-related insomnia, I am hounded by misgivings. As always, the possibility that I might not return cannot be discounted: so many ad... 
"My pleasure," someone said recently when I thanked him for an unexpected kindness. I have reflected on that phrase ever since. For one thing, I'm pretty sure his gesture wasn't an unmitigated joy. Id did cost him something: extra time, a bit of inconvenience. Nevertheless, he answered with the courtesy phrase. 
"I like your essays. You write things that readers want to read," someone in my exercise class said recently about my WTE column. I smiled, remembering how many things I'd written, and attempted to publish, that nobody in the business felt strongly enough about to give me a leg up. An entire manuscript sits on my desktop, ready to go, if things should change. But maybe I learned something from my failures. Maybe I learned to let go of the desire to amount to something in the eyes of family, c... 
Fretting about the future is as useless as bemoaning the past; still, as sentient beings we can't help wonder what the future might bring, just as we can't keep ourselves from considering past acts that we might have handled better. As we age, the future is less important for our own existence--we know where we are headed--as it is for the continued existence of a child or grandchild. What does life have in store for this boy twenty years from now, when he'll be in search of a mate and a job...
Sometimes it's necessary to step away from the hubbub created by our social connections. Much as I love family and friends, their sorrows and sadness--and, yes, contentiousness--can get to me. Then I feel as if anything I might try to make things better is not going to amount to anything, for someone else will unravel whatever I'm trying to do.
Though I now live in Wyoming, I make frequent return trips to California with visits to travel club members along the way. At home I play classical guitar, enjoy gardening and cooking, and participate in group yoga. Getting together with family and friends is high on my agenda. I value people who write or make music and love it when my adult children and their offspring play their instruments, sing songs with me, or discuss what they read and write. Such gatherings help me cope with the losses in my life, which have been severe. Next year I hope to visit family in Germany.
