Musings of a Middle Aged Man

New beginnings. A blank book decorated for the first time with 179 pages eagerly (I hope) anticipating their turn for the ink to wax eloquently, to wane dispassionately, to invest time in growing my creative abilities while purging the existing slop, infecting my mind, heart, and soul.

A crucial factor creating a separation gulf between man and other animals is our ability to imagine, to create what-if scenarios to stretch our understanding of existence and the laws governing existence. Even more astonishing, it allows us to create something that never before was known or imagined by another, in a sense, making us gods in our own right. The creation can be as beguiling as an abs...

The "land of the free and home of the brave" has devolved into "land of the oppressed and home of the fearful." Tell them this and they will yank out their concealed carry guns and, maybe spit in your face, to exhibit their bravery not realizing the gun they are toting is the hard evidence they live in abject fear. This partly explains the rise of Christian Nationalism and the...

I experienced an aha moment the other day, a mega-watt lightbulb moment illuminating a truth previously hidden in the deep shadows cast by my lack of awareness, disdain for religion, and a closed thought to an idea that seemed radical at the moment but, upon reflection, a fiber of common sense truth. I imagine it was similar to the lightbulb moments such as Newton formulating the theory of gravity...

Is it profound arrogance or simple hubris that drives humanity to believe we are separate from nature and have dominion over the natural world? Sure, we mostly have dominion over ourselves within the boundaries established by the government but to extend self dominion of our natural selves to claiming dominion over nature is a stretch that makes sense only to religious and political zealots.

A stark contrast separating science from religion comes about from science being dedicated to discovering what they don't know so they can fill knowledge gaps whereas religion is happy to claim God is the answer filling any blindspots with mythological nuances no matter how fantastical, improbable, or irrational. It is a form of willful blindness by people terrified of reality, no different th...

Since Limbo is no longer de rigueur in the Catholic canon and the simple fact I've been baptized twice so could never be eligible for the imaginary place of natural happiness for those who died without personal sin, I can only conclude I have been banished to a state of perpetual purgatory for my soul will never be purified. Unlike the slippery Catholic doctrine defining purgatory as a state o...

One of the darkest periods in US history was the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their parents and confining them to "re-education" schools where they were shorn of sacred hair and beaten when speaking their natal languages. The historical fact that Navajo Code Talkers helped save allied lives during WWII is a massive up yours to the fools and evil doers insisting the childr...

I have heard numerous times that an artist encodes themselves in their work. Not purposely. It is a natural outcropping of the creative process, a process as intimate as loving another human being. Perhaps, the reason I feared making art for large swaths of my life is that I am either uncomfortable having others see the hidden me or I am terrified of seeing the essence of myself.

If recent events spanning the past ten years, have taught me anything it is that the typical American cares little for any truth that would undermine the lies they hold so dear and near to their deceitful hearts. It is not just little lies like your new hairstyle is becoming or, yes, your butt does look deliciously phat in that outfit. It is grandiose lies peated and repeated ad nauseum in a bid t...

What does art demand? Easy. Everything. Heart, mind, body, and soul dedicated to art with no less zeal than a zealot willing to sacrifice themselves for their religion. And that is why I will never be a great artist. I am a reluctant enthusiast, a part-time creator saving a large chunk of my time to simply, " Be! " Or it may be a convenient excuse to cover my lack of imagination and inab...

By their nature, feathers are imbued with a magical mystical quality helping the mind soar to unforeseeable, unfathomable heights, elevating the soul into ethereal realms with a flock of kindred creatives. At least, they do for me and, I suspect, for the gaggle viewing Earth as the one true god, and nature as the one true path to God. This is not a fluffy God that will reach a finger down to rescu...

The decisive factor contributing to human ascendency from tree-dwelling, shadow-hiding primates into the dominant species on the planet is our unique ability to encode thought into a set of symbols for future reference rather than being slaves to the instincts encoded in our DNA. Writing and reading are human superpowers. They bestow upon us the ability to learn from people we will never meet incl...

Part and parcel of being raised in a monoculture is the gradually built hubris wherein the world is divided into two distinct antithetical halves. They are 'our way' and the 'wrong way.' It sets the stage for the curse of binary thinking, an almost complete inability to see shades of grey, including the inability to appreciate the vivid spectrum between white and black that gives t...

It is amazing that words uttered when years could still be written with two digits are a laser light exposing reality 2,000 years after the fact. It is a perfect example of Santayana's maxim that the past is repeated by those who can't remember (or read) it. None of us were in existence during the life of Seneca and most Americans are too incestuously nationalistic to put credence in the b...

In some cases, familiarity brings a measure of acceptance. In others, familiarity brings about contempt. Ubiquity becomes first invisible before transforming into a constant grating on the nerves at its everpresent presence. All the while, that which we can't have, acts as a siren pulling us powerfully in its direction. If I eat the same food too often, I get sick of it. If I hear the same mus...

Everything you are about to read is bullshit, complete and utter nonsense better attributed to a person locked in a padded cell and restrained by a four-point harness than an educated scientist steeped in the mythology thought can and should be rational. Every concept, every sentence, every phrase, each word, letter, even the spaces between the letters are lies. This piece contains not an ounce of...

For decades, I have coveted a poet's soul to balance the strictness of my Engineer's mind to help me break free of constricting squares whose corners harbor demons allowing me to immerse in the freedom of circles without beginning or end. It is a struggle. Half of me wants to elucidate exquisite reality while the other half prefers to marinate in surreality where the physical laws of the universe...

Humans are attuned to patterns. It was a necessary evolutionary nuance for the hairless ape to survive the descent from the trees to the plains in Africa where differentiating between food source and foe was crucial to seeing the sunrise on future days. I imagine ancient man adopted clothing and ornamentation associating them with their clan creating easily discernable patterns helping them recogn...

I find it challenging to write with enough clarity that a piece accurately and adequately expresses my ideas so there are minimal holes in understanding my thoughts with my poet's soul desiring to say the most possible in the fewest words building upon captivating imagery. The former requires copious words in precision order that frequently loses the reader in utter boredom while the latter can ea...

Imagine, if you will, a football (real football) match between the Premier and World Champion Manchester United (I know, a current fantasy) and a team of U9 players with the match played on a regulation pitch bounded by 45-minute halves. Besides being a joke to both the professional and amateur athletes participating in the fiasco, it would be an insult...

I fondly remember from days of yore when differences of opinion would result in deep, logic-based, fact-centered debate, sometimes heated by passion's flame resulting either in agreement with one or both parties shifting their understanding, or termination in agreement to disagree respectfully with the debaters toddling off together for cold beverages or a hot meal without any animosity tainting t...

In the halcyon days of my youth, a female acquaintance informed me that kissing is considered so intimate that ladies of the night refrain from lip-to-lip action with their clients while having no qualms about letting a man otherwise ravage their bodies. As far as I know, this woman never worked in the world's oldest profession so I have no idea how she knew this tidbit. She couldn't search online...

I grew up in the era of flower power, make love not war, the smiley face, and the peace sign which oddly became the symbol of a criminal president. It was heralded as a new Dawn of Aquarius, a time of change, hope, innovation, and a shift in consciousness from "me" to "we" ushering in a break from staid traditions allowing for new ideas to germinate, bloom, and perfume the world. I was young, naiv...

I rarely disagree with the pearls of wisdom extolled by the prophet extraordinaire, Edward Abbey. Much of my thought lines were indeed born of his writing but, unlike religious zealots, I am as comfortable rejecting his pearls that don't glisten in my heart as I am in accepting others into my soul and informing my future. I am not saying he was delusional with the opening quote only that its appli...