thoughts on life

Minus the threat of nuclear war (though both America and Russia are still armed to the teeth with the damn things), the stale rehash of the Cold War calculus elicits…

Our worldviews aren’t just about how we see the world; they’re even more basically about how we view nature. Take this statement, which is hilariously wrongheaded on both counts: “Babies…

There’s a fundamental commonality between Christianity and Islam. Both make virtues out of suffering and sacrifice. These twin philosophical pillars have produced enormous harm in the world throughout the centuries,…

In a week during which the mystery of the birth of space, time and billions of galaxies was solved, the mystery of the disappearance of an airliner has deepened. The…

California’s Valley Oak is just coming into leaf in this locale. The branches of one of its magnificent specimens, undulating in the breeze, drape down and touch new green grass…

There comes a point where meditation seems superfluous. Almost against my will (since I was strongly thinking about other things on the sitting beside the full, fast and clear creek…

I seem to be meeting up with a lot of people lately that are into channeling. What is this phenomenon, both in itself and as a cultural trend, and does…

“Thoughts That Can’t Be Spoken” is a fascinating piece about a writer’s experience of a stroke. Alberto Manguel describes what happened after “a blood clot in one of the arteries…