CLOSE-UP
Earlier this week, Travis and I were biking home on a perfect summer evening. We had been out at a downtown brewpub. Our discussion had covered a lot of wild territory, all over the place — politics, the pandemic,…
AS LONG AS IF ONLY
A few weeks ago several of us were waiting on Zoom for the rest of the team to join us for our monthly Board meeting, and the casual conversation was going something like this: “How are you doing?” “Well… I’m…
TINY GRASS IS DREAMING
A lawn sign appeared a few years ago, becoming popular across the internet: Chinese characters with the quaint English rendering — “Do Not Disturb: Tiny Grass is Dreaming.” I really don’t know if the translation is accurate. I read an…
SAME AS IT EVER WAS
Sometimes it seems like everything has changed and nothing will ever be the same. From another angle, though, it looks to me like things are pretty much the same as they’ve always been — amped up, for sure, but basically…
FOR GOOD MEASURE
I don't remember why, but for some reason, I was looking up the arbitrary standards by which non-metric measurements were established. For example: an inch, originally, was determined to be the width of a man’s thumb. In a number…
HAVE IT YOUR WAY
Our one-year-old kitty, Danny, was a skinny little guy when he joined our family six months ago. His Instagram handle is “Little Danny Cat,” in fact, because he seemed so bitty compared to his mature sister-aunties, Val and Flo. That…
THOROUGH
There’s a bothersome paradox at the heart of the Science of Mind philosophy. Well, honestly, it’s not just in the Science of Mind, and there’s not just one. Regarding ambiguities and contradictions, I am kind of like a pig…
CARRY ON
My first memory is of my father. It was a little over a month before my third birthday. He woke me in the middle of the night, with an air of hushed excitement, and carried me across the street to…
HOPING MECHANISM
“I hope so.” Too often, this phrase lands for me as terribly limp and feeble. It may contain a modicum of positivity, but only the most meager portion — a glimmer, a sliver... “I hope so,” tends to convey too…
LET US LISTEN AND LEARN
I know that a lot of people, myself included, are unsure about the best ways to participate and contribute to the work of healing and restorative justice right now. As a white guy, I’m trying to check my urge to…