February 2012
13 posts
1 tag
The Currency of Movement
Saturday night, I saw a one-woman play performed in a local theater. “Rachel Corrie” is the story of a courageous young woman who spent her last months in Palestine, championing a cause that was dear to her heart. The story of her death was not the story that needed told; the story of her life was a lesson in humanity. I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon watching “The 100 Greatest Artists of...
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Weekend Reading
A seemingly random collection of things worthy of your attention this weekend (some old, some new): “If a system of state education were to focus on the civic virtues needed for a free society, such as a respect for individual rights and obedience to a limited government, then surely it would be a good thing.” George H. Smith on The Roots of State Education. Scott Belsky offers some...
Ways Not to Write
mills:
I am a terrible descriptive writer in part because I am not perceptive about the world visually; in addition to being self-absorbed and inattentive, I have never acquired several important vocabularies which help one take note of what one sees. Like many men, I suppose, I’ve neglected color, and still round all blues to blue, from Cornflower to Pantone 292. I have no idea what the plants...
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Coffee Cups & Relationships
I recently had a conversation with a dear friend of mine, and it struck me that I’d spoken these words many times before. In fact, they were becoming something of a mantra, a piece of the personal manifesto puzzle. In this conversation, I likened most aspects of my life to a coffee cup I recently purchased. Now, I am quite the coffee fanatic. I’ve no idea how I’d go about my day without it....
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The Case for Conscious Consumption
If you reside on the web, or even occasionally visit, this seventeen-minute presentation given by Clay Johnson should be at the top of your to-do list. In it, Johnson explains why we must demand a reversal in the trend of the downfall of editorial integrity, and why it is vital to every American citizen. found via curiositycounts.
from Wonderisms http://bit.ly/xbgGYR
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In Response to @JDBentley's "The Purpose of Life...
JD Bentley recently (well, two months ago) wrote a post with which I vehemently disagree. Now, for the record, JD is a wonderful writer. I’m a subscriber to his site (you should be, too) and I enjoy his posts immensely. That said, I think he has this happiness thing all wrong. He begins this particular post by refuting an idea from the Dalai Lama, that “the purpose of our lives is to be happy.”...
“Our word for school comes from the Greek word for leisure. Of course, reasoned...”
– “The Greek Way” - Edith Hamilton (via bloggingthebookshelf)
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A Reminder
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from Wonderisms http://bit.ly/z3a5c9
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Mammaw
Last Friday, I received a message that my grandmother, who had a stroke last year, wasn’t doing well, and that she wasn’t expected to make it through the day. Hours later, I got the phone call. She had passed. In a way, from a grandson’s perspective, this is the natural order of things. When Fate comes to take payment, our grandparents are the first to be returned to the soil. It is expected....
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Weekend Reading
The weekend is a wonderful time to relax, to let the triumphs and failures of the week fade into the ether, and to be nowhere but right here, right now. Here’s a few articles to help you sink into now: In Philosophy - What’s the Use?, Gary Gutting disputes the pervasive notion that philosophical reflection is useless. On Why We Reason: Julian Baggini recently gave a TED talk likening...