Musings of a Middle Aged Man

There is a sadly humorous subReddit called "Shit Americans Say" containing a host of stupid utterances said by Americans in various posts both inside and outside of the Reddit platform. It is funny in the abject stupidity uttered by supposedly educated human beings. It becomes sad, very sad when you realize people actually believe the nonsense. Many show a complete lack of knowledge rega...

Fundamentally, creativity is at the core of becoming and being human. I do find it fascinating that the oldest religious figurines, the Venus', are all representations of the feminine divine, a truth that offends the patriarchy as evidenced by the male god religions that downplay the female contributions with some going so far as to label women unclean and inferior and objects to be subjugated...

A favorite Bible quote of the Christo-fascists seeking to undermine the essence of the American Republic, a constitutional Democracy prone to exploitation by a powerful minority, is: " God is the same yesterday and today and forever. " For some reason, they believe a stagnant deity is something worth bragging about, as if it makes their deity superior to one capable of learning and growi...

Any rendering of the infinite requires reductionism, trimming, and paraphrasing eliminating much of what makes the immeasurable unique so that the finite human mind can grasp at the whiskers of the entire entity. Hell, most humans have a difficult enough time understanding themselves, their acutely finite selves, let alone a boundless, eternal Master residing in the skies above...

My upbringing was decidedly European...perhaps...Western is the better descriptor. I am prone to categorizing and subcategorizing until everything fits into their nice little boxes of my own definition. Linear thinking. Box philosophy. Strictly illogical logic. One online troll I have encountered assumes I fit into the Dickocrat box because I am appalled by the words and actions of the Repricklica...

I am perfectly content to travel through life knowing there are gaps in my knowledge. I relish those gaps because they agitate my sense of wonder. Once the awe induced by wonder subsides, I am driven to explore and increase my knowledge toward understanding. To learn. Learning, rather than decreasing my sense of wonder, actually increases it...

The problem I have with holy books, scripture if you will, is not with the book itself. Much can be gleaned from the allegorical nature of the content. My problem lies with the people who elevate the human contrived works as absolute, inviolable truth despite the inherent errancy and inaccuracies in the text that are glossed over or rationalized...

We also assume Van Gogh took artistic liberty in his incredible painting, "The Starry Night" when he depicted the sky with curling and swirling light trails. We assume Isaac Asimov created a fantastical universe from his imagination rather than writing the reality of his Earthly experiences...

This morning I woke to the distressing news that the Governor of Florida has vetoed funds allocated to the arts in the latest budget. The surest evidence that art has the power to open minds to new realities comes when politicians defund art programs, especially in schools where young minds should be exploring possibilities rather than being constrained by political agendas...

According to 2015 Pew Research, 42% of Americans, up from 28% in 2007, have changed their religious affiliation from the one they were born and raised in. This includes switching to a different religion and crossing between affiliation and no affiliation. A University of Chicago study found that 35.7% changed affiliation to either another faith or no faith...

I prefer to experience life as a series of thoughts verified by direct interaction. I guess that makes me an empiricist where knowledge is derived from sensory experiences emphasizing observation and experimentation. I also fall into the Rationalist category believing logical reason and critical thinking are essential to evaluating empiricist experimentation when forming conclusions...

Conundrum: To be a big fish in a small pond lording your size to dominate the environment. Or to be a small fish in an ocean so expansive every day has the potential for new exploration while watching over your shoulder for bigger fish seeking to dominate you...

There are times I wish my mind acted like a prim, proper, pinecone, perfectly symmetrical housing a compact set of ideas perfectly encased waiting for the heat of knowledge to help the seeds burst forth then land in lush soil where they will germinate into a near perfect replica...

In 1972, I was a preteen and beholden to budding hormones, hero worship, and other vagaries that can be attributed to a mind and body in development. In that year and the two following, a radically different TV show crashed through network barriers to enthrall the TV watching public. The show eventually became #1 in the country. It was set in the beloved Old West, a mythologized era Americans tend...

I am utterly fascinated with the myriad ways humanity attempts to connect with the perceived spirit in the sky, the spirit of the Earth, or the universal spirit that interconnects the universe and all its beings, especially the concept of deities, either humanoid or animal or nature herself...

One of my favorite quotes says we learn by listening, not speaking. I also like the adage that proclaims we have two ears and one mouth so that we listen twice as much as we speak. In my experience, prayer is not so much listening to the still small voice of God and learning as it is requesting intercession in a challenging situation so that learning from the challenge is not necessary...

Wilderness, a word derived from the Olde English term 'wildēorness' meaning association with wild places. Wild meaning untamed or uncultivated. I am intrigued by the 'un' prefix which seems to indicate the natural state is somehow deficient because man has not brought it under his dominion, a controlling mindset cultivated by those who profess allegiance to profit at all costs. Dēo...

Willy Shakespeare associated Raven with death, doom, and evil omens. Edgar Allen Poe added to that greater association that Raven symbolized a descent into madness. These negative associations make me wonder, did Shaky and Poe ever encounter a wild raven laughing as it played on the wing - rising, falling, rollercoastering, and barrel rolling?

Little Bird, I heard your chirp in my mind's eye but was still startled when you landed on my head while I was reading of desert places and wide open spaces...

Fear is an insidious beast capable of driving the most peaceful loving individual into a barely recognizable, raving lunatic bent on inflicting pain...regardless of whether the fear is aroused by fact or fiction, truth or lies...

If I were to place a bird atop a pedestal scaled in height based on the beauty of their song, not to look up their skirts into their nether regions, the tallest of those lofty pedestals would be reserved for Cañon Wren...

I find myself drifting more and more in the direction of Buddhism precisely because the philosophy does not fixate on appeasing a central deity supposedly omni-everything but whose ego is so fragile the creating deity demands worship from the created. Buddhism is generally classified as a religion because it has a code of ethics, rituals, clergy, sacred texts, and places of worship. However, these...

I find it fascinating that a world claiming to want peace, to value peace has elected so many right-wing wannabe autocrats campaigning on hate into political office. Part and parcel, these extremists are prone to violence in word and deed...

I get that we are desperate to believe life is not a random series of arbitrary events but a carefully crafted plan where everyone contributes their unique person and abilities to the glory of a supreme deity guiding the universe to a glorious un-finality. It can all be summed in one word...fear...

Honest Abe was both revered and reviled in his day, is still revered by those who know all people are created equal and deserving of freedom from all forms of tyranny, reviled by those still blinded by the bigoted view deeming white people superior to all other races, never mind race being a human construct designed to elevate by oppression. A fact, little known outside the indigenous communities,...