Necessary but Not Sufficient…

  • What choice(s) do I have?

    I am an American consumer. I have no little choice in the matter. There are extreme options for living off the grid, but I live in a big city (Seattle).  Therefore, I must do as the Seattlites do. I try to make intelligent, conscientious consumer choices: buying second hand, buying local, buying independent. However, these choices Read more

  • Ending a relationship…

    I used to be a religious man. I was a Christian; a Catholic to be precise. I did my best to read the bible. I enjoyed the community of ritual. I even entered seminary for a brief time. I wasn’t perfect; far from it. But I tried, and repented, and tried again. When I was Read more

  • How do you say goodbye?

    Recently, my wife’s grandfather passed away. He had advanced stage Alzheimer’s. I remember meeting him before we were married. There was barely a person there. He lived another 6 years. He outlived his wife while in the care center. Tonight, my wife said, “I’m confused. I feel like I should be more broken up about Read more

  • Seattle, stop complaining.

    Today it hit 90 degrees in Seattle. The weather prognosticators say the next two days will be the hottest of the year. Tomorrow is supposed to be 95. For Seattle, these are apocalyptic temperatures. 90 degrees is something nobody in Seattle thinks about until it happens. Then all local hardware stores sell out of their Read more

  • Fear is the mind killer

    “There is absolutely no value to my life if I begin to lose my mind.” These were challenging words I heard in a sermon two weeks ago. The topic: the loss of reverence in modern society. Lately I have been attending a Unitarian Universalist congregation near my home. Every topic has been inspiring. This one Read more

  • The heart is in the groove…

    Human beings love music. We seem genetically programmed to hear it, make it, and experience it. This probably has to do with our brain’s ability to find patterns in random experiences and extrapolate those patterns into more complex experiences. A million years ago an emerging humanity heard things in nature, liked what it heard, and Read more