Free Will This morning I read an interesting article about Professor Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University. He is a professor of biology and neurology who is an atheist who was raised as an Orthodox Jew in the heart of Brooklyn. He has spent his career studying the behavior of both primates and humans and has come to a rather bold conclusion. He believes there is ample evidence to prove that when it comes to man’s…
Getting Crazier We all know that American politics has been pretty crazy for about eight years now. Yes, that coincides with Donald Trump coming onto the scene of the American political landscape in a serious (I have a really hard time using that word to describe anything Donald Trump does) way. It does strike me that we are in the beginning of the eventual end to that reign of terror now that we are seeing…
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod In 1889, poet Eugene Field, “the poet of childhood” and a man of letters wrote the poem, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Field was from a somewhat storied family in Missouri as his father, an attorney, famously represented Dred Scott in his failed attempt to litigate for his and his immediate family’s freedom in 1857. This led to the infamous Dred Scott Decision wherein the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that he was…
The Majesty of Place There is a line from America the Beautiful that we all know that goes “For purple mountains majesties…”. We all know the song written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1895 (originally called Pikes Peak). She was an English professor at Wellesley College and she wrote the song while taking a cross-country trip to Colorado. When she looked out at the wonders she could see from Pikes Peak, the words flowed into…
Marry Me a Little When Kim and I met in 2005, I had been separated from my second marriage for four years and been through several other relationships, looking for but not yet finding my next marriage partner. I knew myself enough to know that I was someone who wanted and needed to be married. I’ve never understood those who resolve “never again” after a bad marital experience. I don’t know if I’ve just made…
Ought v. Naught Reimagining America George Pratt Shultz lived 100 years and for 35 of those years was a leading force in the forging of America’s foreign and domestic policies. He held four different cabinet-level positions under two Republican presidents, holding a seat at the cabinet table for a dozen years from 1969 to 1989. He was on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors for Eisenhower, Secretary of Labor, Director of the Office of Management…
The Fringes of Fall We turned an important page yesterday. We wrapped up a whirlwind weekend actualizing and celebrating my youngest son Tom’s wedding to his new bride, Jenna. The wedding itself was on Sunday, which the cognoscenti will recognize as indicative that it was a Jewish ceremony held under a chuppah, a Jewish bridal canopy. Tom is not Jewish, but Jenna is. Tom was raised in a very open and embracing manner in Manhattan,…
Being Rude Modern life is all about managing through an 8 billion person world. It can be misleading as we travel around from here to there. Whether in the West or the East, the North or the South, there are great swaths of wide open spaces. I watched a movie the other day called Survive. It was about a woman who is suicidal who survives a plane crash and then has to find her way…
Hot & Cold Water We are in Beacon, New York this Labor Day weekend for my son Tom’s wedding, which will take place on Sunday. He is marrying Jenna, who we have known for ten years, and Kim and I could not be happier about it. Tom and Jenna got engaged two years ago when he proposed to her under the Manhattan Bridge on the Brooklyn side of the East River. As we were coming…