consciousness

It’s spring in northern California, and despite the pandemic, or because of it, numerous people cross the footbridge on bikes or foot on a hazy, warm Sunday afternoon. I sit…

At the end of a rainy, chilly and breezy day, the sky to the west begins to clear. The lightest rain I’ve ever seen begins falling in the slanting sunlight.…

Despite the governor of California’s orders to only go out alone for groceries and exercise, the bumpy gravel road into the canyon beyond town is lined with cars and small…

Spinoza was wrong when he said: “Repentance is not a virtue. It does not arise from reason. Rather, he who repents what he did is twice miserable.” Yes, repentance does…

Stories are appearing from around the planet of suddenly clean air and water. For example, as Francesco Delrio writes, “Venice hasn’t seen clear canal water in a very long time.…

A group of more than a dozen young people entered the Grand Canyon on rafts before the pandemic struck the United States. Three weeks without contact with the outside world,…

Fittingly, a Filipino fellow, googling the word “precipice,” came upon my column, “At the Precipice, We Change?” It was written almost a year ago. Writers will recognize the sensation of…

Recently I heard an eminent astronomer proclaim: “The universe doesn’t care if we exist, and it won’t care if we go away.” If you’ve spent any time alone in the…