• Thoughts

    How Did We Get Here?

    The psychological stress caused by cognitive dissonance is something that has caught my attention. How could it not? You don’t have to go far to find people getting upset over things that likely would never have bothered them in the…

  • Thoughts

    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,”…

  • Thoughts

    Meaning and Reality

    Questions about reality have come up over and over and over in the last year. When answers have been found, they’ve not always been satisfactory, although they have consistently led me to further questions. Oh, but now, that last sentence…

  • Thoughts

    The Old and the Novel

    The notion of a path or journey to describes one’s life is a bit overused, so I’ve made a conscious effort to avoid such a metaphor. The problem is that I have yet to find one that works as well.…

  • Thoughts

    Please Don’t Get Comfortable

    The best part of reading more than one book at any period of time is finding the connections among them. It is a conversation, and like most conversations, paying attention is important, because if you do, you’ll likely find answers…

  • Thoughts

    Who Wanted It First?

    Yesterday, I tried to put my finger on what separates me from so many people I encounter. I tossed around one notion after another, but none felt quite right until I hit upon the word “quest.” Yet even that misses…

  • Thoughts

    My Own Thing

    How often do I change my mind, my outlook, my convictions? Yes, my convictions. If I don’t blindly hold onto a belief my entire life, it doesn’t mean that I am a moral relativist, and if I don’t keep up…

  • Thoughts

    Is It a Good Expression?

    That question—the title of this post—was asked in an instructional video presented by a successful photographer. He was going through a list he uses to evaluate images: the making of them, along with the finished product. It’s an interesting query…

  • Thoughts

    To and Fro

    Writing used to be an important part of my day. What role does it play in my life now? What kind of influence do I want it to have? The more time I spend reading, the more fodder I gain…

  • Thoughts

    Which Color?

    A black and white world has its allure, as nuance, like freedom, involves responsibility, but black and white gets monotonous—and, besides, there are still more than fifty shades of grey. Saying yes to color takes courage: Adobe RGB offers 16.7…

  • Thoughts

    Words and Fragments

    I just finished reading The Moveigoer by Walker Percy, and yesterday I wrote that relationships are strange, fragile beasts. There is great deal of fragility in Percy’s book. He writes about fragile people and tenuous relationships, but they are offset…