May 26Down the Rabbit HoleI wrote in my last column about the power of advertising to seduce folks into buying things they don’t need. I foggily remembered reading a great description of why that happens. To refresh my memory, I dug out what had once been my bible, “Your Money or your Life” by…Advertising3 min readAdvertising3 min read
May 18We all like “time-saving” devices, but what are we saving time to do?L. M. Sacasas is the author of an illuminating newsletter, The Convivial Society, tracing the intersection of technology, society, and morality. He states a well-known truth that the best way to sell new products in America is to advertise them as “time-saving.” …Purpose Of Life3 min readPurpose Of Life3 min read
May 12Why We Need Hands: A RantMaking things with your hands gets a bad rap today. It’s so blue-collar. You’re a failure if you don’t go to college to get a white-collar job so you can lounge behind a desk. That’s so wrong, I could scream! To me, working with your hands is not only an…AI3 min readAI3 min read
May 4Trauma and TrumpI was taken aback when I heard she had written a new book. She had disappeared from sight over 30 years ago after a devastating injury. No, she wasn’t an old flame: I never met her, yet she has been a guiding light in my life. …Trauma4 min readTrauma4 min read
Apr 27Who’s to Blame for Our Homeless Problem?Tolstoy wrote “What Then Must We Do?”back …Homeless3 min readHomeless3 min read
Apr 20Water the Flowers, Not the WeedsSince Donald Trump entered the national consciousness in 2016, he has harped on everything wrong with America. While it’s healthy to confess the bad things we’ve done as a country in order to do better in the future, it is also vital to remember the good stuff. …3 min read3 min read
Apr 13Will We Remain Human or Become MachinesOur plummeting life expectancy is an extraordinary event that flies in the face of past historical patterns. We are dying younger than any other industrialized nation, according to David Wallace-Wells in a recent NYT article: We are “dying younger than in China, Cuba, the Czech Republic or Lebanon.” According to…4 min read4 min read
Apr 7Walking My Way Back HomeEcology is usually thought of as a study of nature. But because it is derived from the Greek word for household, ecology literally means “the study of home,” according to Robert Macfarlane in Orion Magazine. I thought of Macfarlane’s definition when flying home; First, my airline was late getting to…4 min read4 min read
Mar 28A Stroke of InsightIt’s just the way we are built. Each half of our brain looks at the world differently: our left hemisphere is cognitive and sequential, while our right hemisphere is intuitive and sees the whole. Our left brain, praised for being rational, systematic, and intelligent, has reigned supreme in the west…3 min read3 min read
Mar 20Foraging in San JoseI’ve spent the better part of the winter in California, arriving at the first of the year in a rare atmospheric river producing gale winds, crashing surf, mudslides, and wide-spread flooding. Now we are enduring our eleventh such event, predicted to grow worse over the first half of the week. …3 min read3 min read
