Meditations

Whenever you hear the word “wired” applied to human behavior, pause and question the premises and assumptions. For example: “Human nature is wired toward creating meaning out of meaninglessness.”

A pristinely clear and cold stream flows by at my feet, its brown and reddish stones burnished by the fresh current and glistening in the sunlight. A woodland hawk soars…

Theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind, a professor at Stanford, says, “The fear of death was hardwired into our genetic makeup in the deep past.” That’s a dubious premise.

“Just a quiet couple living the American Dream,” neighbors reported. Only this quiet couple dropped their six-month old baby off at grandmas on the way to slaughter 14 people at…

The local weekly featured two environmentalists just before the holiday that are actively promoting the idea of “Earth hospice.” If anything, shouldn’t they call it “Human hospice?”

A large, red, cup-shaped leaf, its stem pointing straight down, parachutes into the creek in the windless air and is instantly swept downstream on the clear current of death, and…

A novel that deeply affected me when I was young is Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot.” In it, the central character utters one of the most memorable and mysterious lines in all…

After a light, all-night rain, the clouds cleared and the sun made a welcome appearance in the early afternoon. People got outside and into the parkland in droves, including me.…