Meditations

Nothing epitomizes the deep disappointment of people of conscience in Barack Obama than his ham-handed invitation to George W. Bush to fly aboard Air Force One to Nelson Mandela’s funeral.…

Nearly 24 hours of wind have stripped most of the remaining leaves from the trees. Suddenly it is winter, such as it is in the lowlands of northern California.

[In honor of Nelson Mandela, we are re-posting this column, published in 2010, with a few revisions and excisions] The movie “Invictus,” though a bit lumbering, predictable and sentimental, is worth…

Arriving at the creek at the edge of town on the bike at the zenith of the day, a large woodland hawk alights a small tree across the creek, and…

This time of year, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, is the most on-display, consumeristic, and spiritually and emotionally empty time of year in America.More American homes this year already had Christmas…

The essence of movement is motionlessness. The essence of beauty is formlessness.

Upstream, four turkeys glide across the gorge. It’s so unusual to see them in full flight that I don’t know what they are for a second. They’re not ungainly birds…

Science cannot function and advance without two premises, both of which are essential to the scientific enterprise, but adverse to life and right living: dualism and reductionism. The ultimate example…