The Good Earth Yes, I am borrowing Pearl Buck’s title and no, this story is not about a family living in a small Chinese village. This story is about sowing and reaping the resources that the Earth gives us. In microcosm, I am living the reality of reaping what I sow right here on this little hilltop. Some of my days are spent teaching and there is little that happens in this world that is…
Discretion Shakespeare says in King Henry the Fourth through the likable, comic and slightly roguish character Sir John Falstaff that discretion is the better part of valor. What he means is that sheer acts of bravery are foolhardy and it is far better to be cautious, to show good judgment, to be reserved, to make responsible decisions. It can mean that shying away from battle is smarter and better than engaging. One could suggest that…
Letting the Sun Shine Kim and I sit on the sofa most nights while the afternoon turns to evening, listening to the day’s news and wondering about the state of the world. The current debate playing out on the national stage seems to be focused on whether government is an instrument of good or bad. Are we in 1930 and in need of the helping hand of FDR, or are we in 1980 when Reagan…
The Boredom of Biden Today someone sent me a Randy Rainbow YouTube which highlights the fact that Joe Biden is so much less interesting to make fun of than Donald Trump. Obviously, since Randy Rainbow spent most of the last five years making fun of Trump, this is not real criticism of Biden, but rather an underlining of the fact that in national politics we can all use a bit of down-time with some regular…
Suspending Disbelief In the arena of the cinema, the breadth of realizable stories put on film is vast. There are entire genres of film in the SciFi and Fantasy categories that are quite popular. It is often said that the big hurdle these sort of films must cross is the ability to get the audience to suspend disbelief. Technically, this term is used for any sort of piece of fiction for which reality is not…
And As For The Gander Projection can be a wonderful thing. In this case I mean the kind of projection used so often by the liked of Donald Trump. If he calls someone out for lying, it is because he lies and is lying. If he calls someone out for corruption it is because he is inherently corrupt and is probably picking someone’s pocket the very minute he is making the accusation. When he calls…
The COVID Two-Step When the curtain comes down on the COVID story (assuming it ever does come down) the fundamental tales will include stories about Trump’s bungling of the science for presumed political gain (ironic given that it was probably his ultimate undoing), the testing challenge (including Trump’s moronic argument that less testing would lead to a better story through under-reporting), the development of therapeutics (overshadowed by the Sarah Cooper tweets mimicking Trump’s bleach-up-the-butt program)…
The Next Donald Trump No, I am not going to go off on Don Junior…though I easily could. And no, I am not going to wave the warning flag of autocracy by describing the dangers of not convicting him in this new Impeachment Trial such that another despot-in-waiting will rise to new atrocities…though I easily could and should. I want to talk a little about what is next for Donald J. Trump. I believe this…
Seize the Day After Day For years I have adopted Carpe Diem as one of my personal themes. I have a copy of my 60th Birthday invitation which declares Carpe Diem. It was seeing that invitation on my office wall that caused me to think about how long I have been working to seize the day, over and over again. Today and tomorrow (as well as yesterday), I have been focused on seizing the moment…
The New World Yes, the market expected modest jobs growth of 50,000 in the first reporting of the new year, and the number fell short by 1,000 with non-farm job growth of 49,000, but unemployment, which was expected to stay at about 6.7% at least fell to 6.3%. Overall, I suspect the markets and economists will take that as good news for the economy. Jobs growth is one of the common measures that everyone agrees…