Keep your head up
No matter how hard the world tries to make you look down, the view is better with your head up.
Read moreCategory Archives: Life/Times
There is no future: the ironic peace of learned hopelessness (#zenofdoc)
We must be prepared to laugh with the universe at the banality of our own immolation. Full moon. Snowfield, vast beneath the mountain: to understand the truth of people, study their contradictions. This morning I posted this little koan (minus graphic) to Facebook: I’m hardly the first to trot out a “there is no future” Zen meme. My grasp of
Read moreIn defense of Coyote
Perhaps the iconic trickster Coyote is a symbol for the frustrations of the smart person in a stupid world.
Read moreI accidentally scared the hell out of my new landlord last night
No cause for alarm… So, your new tenants have just moved into one of your rental properties in another state. Around 8pm on Thursday you get a brief email from one of the tenants – the man, whom by now you have pegged as the less responsible one – asking: Hi. Can you tell us where the water shutoff valve
Read moreIf everybody were like me, the world would be…
I think a lot of us have this idea in our heads that if everyone in the world were more like us things would generally a lot better. Maybe we’d even have a utopia on our hands. Mostly we’re delusional, of course. I have one old friend who’d trot out the old “if everybody were more like me” line periodically.
Read moreDo you have regrets?
Sometimes that which does not kill us doesn’t make us stronger. Sometimes it breaks us. And bad mistakes I’ve made a few There’s this thing we’ve all learned to say: I have no regrets. And we mean it. I know an incredible number of smart, wonderful people for whom this is a mantra, and they’re sincere. They look at the
Read moreTotality: Words fail. Pictures fail.
The best photo of a total eclipse you’ve ever seen doesn’t tell 1% of the story. The only way to communicate the reality is through digital processing technology. How very postmodern. August 21, 2017: Easterbrook Campground, SE Wyoming. This was my first total solar eclipse. To say it was life-changing … well, if you’ve seen totality you know what I
Read moreRonan would have turned 15 today
Facebook just reminded me: my dog, Ronan MacScottie, would have been 15 today. He died on October 19, 2014. It’s always a joy to remember the energy and attitude and laughter he brought to my life every day. Literally, every day, without exception, he made me laugh. As I have noted before, he was with me through some very dark times,
Read moreDoes the Culture Index accurately describe me? You make the call.
My friend thinks personality tests are hooey, and he’s often right. This one hit pretty close to home, though. So a couple weeks ago back I put in online apps for a couple of jobs. A new job isn’t plan A, but I will soon know if my first two months at the current gig are reflective of what the
Read moreWaiting: Union Station, Denver
It was five years ago today… Saturday, June 2, 2012 – I had purchased my first camera the day before and ventured out to the Denver Chalk Art Festival. I’ve come a long way since then.
Read moreThe democratization of photography: S&R Honors George Eastman
Our lives are full of Kodak moments.
Read morePedophilia and our sexualized media: is naïveté a good thing or a bad thing?
The Mr. C case has me wondering if widespread familiarity with sexual themes and content makes today’s youth more or less susceptible to pedophiles.
Read moreMy mentor, the pedophile [UPDATED]
Part 1 of a series.
Read moreDear Liberals: you don't vote in your economic best interests, either
Bottom line: almost ALL Americans vote against their best interests. For years progressives have been hammering conservatives – specifically social conservatives – who “vote against their own interests.” As in, poor working people who vote for the wealthy GOP interests that are the reason they’re poor, and whose policies insure they will remain that way. I have certainly been among this crowd
Read moreRural elites: I've had it with the arrogance of ignorance (and its promoters)
The only thing worse than the willfully ignorant is the legion of apologists enabling them. Since the election – before, really – we’ve heard a lot of talk about how all those urban liberal elites need to stop being so arrogant and start listening to very real concerns of real Americans in rural flyover values America. We have more recently begun
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lullaby pit 