Musings of a Middle Aged Man

I find the entire petitioning the lord with prayer phenomena to be nothing short of absurd. An all-powerful entity existing simultaneously at all points in time already knows what's going to occur when the dominoes were set in motion at the onset of existence and they fall in precisely the order she perfectly designed...

I am becoming increasingly disenfranchised with politics in the United States which means I, having grown up during the tail end of the Vietnam fiasco and the Tricky Dick criminal activity, am quickly approaching zero faith in our entrenched political construct...

I heard, recently, a person lamenting the fact that Christians fight to get the Ten Commandments given to Moses posted in public schools and other public institutions but say nothing about the Jesús gifted Beatitudes delivered at what they claim to be the greatest ever sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. Holding the separation of church and state sacrosanct...

There was a time when my ego was so fragile I cared about a legacy existing beyond the bookends of my mortal coil. I felt it was important that my family name propagated as deep into the future as its anchor in the past...

Up until last night, I was aware of only one Earth mass extinction event. Well, two, considering the one we are in the midst of, instigated by the careless hands of man. I count this failure of the American education system being systematically undermined by right-wingnuts and their Bible as history delusions...

I am regularly astonished at the vast number of people seeking outside themselves for the godhead that dwells within each being from the nearly permanent rocks to the ephemeral damselfly that dies within a day of hatching and breeding...

That liberty was perceived as more important than safety by the country's Founding Fathers should come as no surprise considering a popular slogan in 1775 was Patrick Henry's famous proclamation, "Give me liberty or give me death!" The sentiment...

There is a certain je ne sais quoi about a being that combines holiness and tricksterness in the same personage that brings balance to the universe...

I don't know if 'lost' is the correct word to capture my state of discontinuity and disconnect with the marrow of life. Preoccupied may be closer but is missing the essence of disconnectedness. There is also perplexed or bewildered...

For years...for decades, if I am honest...I existed in a world bounded on all sides by me, myself, and focused on I. My needs, my desires outweighed all other parameters driving my actions. I'm unsure how many people I damaged with my selfishness leading to the flaming crash of my own existence leaving me an isolated wretch...

I learned long ago that words matter in profound ways. Unless they are woven into a tapestry of nothingness by politicians ensuring they can never be held accountable for any promises they uttered. The nuance of words, their tone, and their implications not only capture existing perceptions but also create realities outside our wildest imaginations...

If open spaces opens minds, and I believe this truth will all my open soul, it holds, conversely, that closed spaces closes minds...

Imagine putting your life at risk when volunteering for a cause you deeply believed in and felt was justified only to find out experientially the "good" guys were riddled with the cancer of evil and the perpetrators of heinous, inhuman acts are protected...

In a group of people, I love having the answer to the vexing questions people ponder, especially when they are stumped and I can jump into the phone booth, change into my cape, and save the day with an eloquent answer. It is a stroke to my fragile ego...

Growing up as I did in the '60s and '70s, it was pert near impossible to be unaware of the horrific murders committed by Charles Manson and his devotees as the shocking images dominated the news cycle. The TV spectacle is what happens when violence...

Have you ever wondered why so many of those labeled prophets sought refuge in the desert? The desert is a spartan landscape where mere mortals including Zoroaster, Nabu, Moses, Jesus...

In our narcissistic arrogance, humanity believes it is the pinnacle of creations, God ordained to rule the Earth on which our two feet and ten toes scraped before being encased in shoe prisons isolating us from the source. A narcissist is unable to see anything...

I, like most human beings, I reckon, am powerfully drawn to beauty, irresistibly taunted as a mariner is bewitched by the Siren's luring melody. Not everyone has identical parameters defining their version of beauty, or societies for that matter. There was a time...

Had I simply broken my leg, even incurring a compound fracture, instead of tearing my knee's anterior cruciate ligament, I would be in a physically better place today. A healed fracture includes a significant calcium build up making the break area stronger than it was previously. When the injury heals...

Driving home from an extended weekend in the UP, the Upper Penninsula, I realized I spend large swathes of time tending to the thoughts living in my head. Too much? I can't rightly say...

According to Joseph Campbell, the preeminent religious scholar of his day, all religions are true...if taken metaphorically. The metaphors represented were designed to help people navigate the life mystery rather than bumble about repeating the same mistakes...

If poetry is, by its very nature, subversive, what are the implications for the poet out of whose soul poetic words are bled onto subway walls and tenement halls? Most likely, the words sprang from a deep sense of injustice, a response to abuse, oppression, malfeasance, or transgression by a government or individual lording their power against the disenfranchised defenseless. ..

One stilting aspect of inner city life is the paucity of bird song. There are a few chirps and tweets here and there but mostly, I hear the woman next door who seems to only be able to communicate by yelling. Hollering at her young kids. Screaming at her husband...

Most people I know are either attracted to the purring surf of an ocean shore where they relax in a gentle breeze beneath an umbrella sipping a Mai Tai and dousing themselves in the amniotic salt when they get too hot. Others are enamored with tall mountains, majestic peaks reaching...

How is it a brain that can create remarkable beauty out of nothing, a beauty potent enough to inspire tears of joy can also plan and commit acts of unspeakable horror drawing tears of pulsing agony? The barbarian...