It Can Get Hazy Among Humans
Reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels set in Roman Britain is a bit of a paradox. As a lover of freedom, I should be rooting for the native tribes who have had their ways of life upset, curtailed, and sometimes ruined by…
Any Remorse? Justice? Freedom?
At one time, I stumbled upon a video or two in which a psychiatrist of some sort explained the difference between sociopaths and psychopaths. (I think I may have written about it.) The net/net was that psychopaths are born with…
The Bad and the Good
So, I learned a new word: ponerology, which is the study of evil. I guess in some ways, I have been an accidental student of ponerology for approximately a year now (give or take a few). Well, then again, if…
Your Own Darkness
Carl Jung wrote, “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” Jung is another one of those people I’ve not let myself explore, but it might be time to change that. The…
Thinking and Knowing
Art and poetry get banished from our lives, and we are impoverished. We put our hands in our empty pockets and wonder why nothing fills them. We turn to roadmaps and instruction manuals but are still unable to decipher how…
Can We Trust Our Eyes?
Lately, I’ve been thinking and writing about the nature of reality, because—I guess—I’ve been trying to find it. If we are somehow not in touch with reality, though, what, exactly, is it that surrounds us? Good question, no? Is it…
Be Merciful to Me, a Sinner
I have written often about labels and categorizing, and my attention is warranted. Labeling is essential to our existence, but, as with nearly everything, it can be both benefit and bane. We lessen the impact of unmapped territory, defusing its…
Letting Myself Look
I guess I have not written about Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill and that surprises me. It, or maybe the just the Joe Rogan chat with Tom O’Neill, turned out…
Big Pictures
Through the details unique to each story, literature shows us the big pictures in life. When I take in the stacks and stacks of shirts in Jay Gatsby’s closets, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, and the…
Person or Commodity?
When I look back at my writing, I notice common themes, and while in the past, it bothered me, because it seemed like I was unable to move forward or entertain an original thought, I no longer feel that way.…
The Cave
Our lives are filled with assumptions that most of take as true. We see these things with our eyes, hear them with our ears; sometimes, we touch, taste, or smell them. I am holding this big, heavy, dull grey rock…
Which Character are You?
Once in a while, I remind myself that I used to get frustrated with people who wouldn’t hand out answers like candy. I liked the sound of this: “Literature leaves you with questions; lesser works give you all the answers,”…
