The names of the people we love are like beads on a Rosary, well-worn worry stones oft-fondled for comfort and reassurance. See also, The human GPS network: navigating our lives
Thinking, Fast and Slow. (And 2 worries.)
Some of my books have well-worn pages, others are falling apart from use. The books I use heavily are usually those I think worth giving others. And so I do. I peruse used-book shops and thrift stores to stock my library with multiple copies. This way, I often have a book on hand to share. If…
Small house in a big world. The power of perspective.
I don’t know how old I was when I first heard I live in a very small house, but my windows look out on a very big world. But as one of my dad’s favourite quotes, I’ve known it as long as I can remember. Up until recently, I’ve attributed the quote to Thoreau. But…
Just a thought. 4.
With the little bit of free time I've had this summer, I've been organizing files on my computer. In the process, I've been reading through some projects I've had shelved. The following paragraph is an excerpt from a larger project -- on belief acquisition -- and I thought it should stand on its own as…
A little advice about social media.
Why the advice? To encourage you to 1) Protect your health and well-being (physical/mental/emotional/social); 2) Protect your reputation; 3) Protect your intellectual integrity. ADOPT THE COUNT-TO-10 RULE. If something someone says on the internet pushes your buttons, do not immediately reply. Instead. Count to ten. And think. If you are still worked up, log out…
The day the Russians nuked my sawmill camp. A survivor’s memoir.
It’s an October morning, 1975, in Upper Fraser, a remote sawmill camp in north central B.C. I’m 9 years old, sitting at my desk in the portable classroom where I’m to spend the remainder of my elementary school years. A bank of windows running the length of wall to my left looks across the dirt…
A Walter Lippmann (1922) quote worth contemplating. Timely. Series 3.1.
“And since my moral system rests on my accepted version of the facts, he who denies either my moral judgments or my version of the facts, is to me perverse, alien, dangerous. How shall I account for him? The opponent always has to be explained, and the last explanation that we ever look for is…
Dinner for one.
See also: A Community of Sufferers*
A Community of Sufferers*
I'm having a meal with my husband at a pub in Bristol, delighting in the warm and jovial conversation of the three older men having a pint at the neighbouring table. By their camaraderie, I assume they've had a long history together, probably meeting at this very pub over many years. As I finish my chicken…
Small town diaspora.
Are there any, like myself, the diaspora of a small and rural, remote town. Are there any, like myself, who yearned to know where the gravel road led. But, now that it's gone, wish I could follow it home. Are there any, like myself, who used to think the open spaces were like walls that…
