“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
I do not like to use animals as a metaphor for terrible behavior by human beings because I like animals. They do not deserve to be slandered for our awful actions. So I will not use wolves or sharks to describe the violent conduct or violent natures of the worst representatives of our species. Even though I’m tempted to call in jackals or hyenas to try to capture what I’m […]
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I’m thinner than I have been since I was in my early 20’s and the shade, even in early September, carries a breath of cold, but the sun on my back feels hot. The pollinators think so. They are swarming the tall coreopsis and the goldenrod in the hundreds, maybe thousands. Somewhere in the span of years, I’ve lost my childhood fear of them. I’ll stand in their midst, close […]
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At 72, a daily accounting of my life runs through my head often these days. It is hard to be honest about one’s own life, hard to bear too much reality, as Mr. Eliot said. Still, it is a useful exercise to at least try to be ruthless in making judgments, if for no other reason than to see clearly in the time remaining. I sat outside with a legal […]
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IX Ultimately, one will not be able to ignore plain, obvious cruelty that shows itself in one’s immediate presence. A person makes a psychic accommodation to it, walks away, averts his or her eyes … or a person ‘gets up’. No one can predict which one he or she will be. Circumstances show us what we are. Those who ‘get up’ respond to a kind of moral emergency. Something inside […]
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