When asked, “What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?” Oedipus correctly answers, “Man.” The mythological Sphinx’s riddle illustrates the physical progress of Man through life in…
The void
Always threatening, bringing the jagged cliff of despair to the highest grassy meadow, the void hangs like a vulture over carrion. Existential emptiness without meaning, the void is an absence, a lacking, a primal and essential hunger gone unfulfilled. The…
Water
Water floods life with stark alternatives: hope or despair, passion or malaise, thirst or drowning, all as we choose. The same fluttering drop fills the seas while emptying the skies, pushing imagination to explore, pulling it to dare. Clouds pan…
To the graduating class
What defines success? A better question, in my opinion, is “who” defines success? For most of us, the simple answer is “someone else,” someone else defines our goals and ambitions. Call it peer pressure or societal expectations or a parent…
Clarity in purpose
The instinctual allure of clarity in purpose can lift the spirit to the pinnacles of human achievement or drop the soul into a pitiless hell, never hinting which direction until arrival. And maybe the direction doesn’t matter; maybe they represent…
New world
Enter the light uncluttered, Tableau unfiltered, fresh, Eyes leaping shape to shape, Thought is curious, but familiar, Logic blessedly beyond ken, Free from freedom; empty of cold, Wonder abounds without convention, Unburdened with structure or form, Thrust into powder’s odd…
Walking the road; saying goodbye to the VW bus
According to the radio, the VW bus – or mini-van or Vanagon, depending on one’s era – will no longer be built anywhere in the world. Brazil, the last manufacturing hold out, recently announced that they were ceasing production of…
Effortless proficiency
Increasingly effective use of cognition is essentially proportional to effort until thought travels to the hidden back side of reasoning’s circle where effort mysteriously vanishes. What seconds earlier took tremendous concentration and effort suddenly flows with unimpeded focus even while…
No need to panic
The Internet was out this morning. So was the phone and cable. Only in these exceedingly rare moments of blissful disconnection (once the initial panic subsides) do I seem able to connect with the only person that matters, or at…
Keeping it real
Have you ever attempted to count the number of times over the course of a day when asked, “How are you?” I haven’t yet, but I think I will tomorrow. Why? Most everyone rely on a canned response to this…