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Showing posts from April, 2012

Being: A Word Doodle

Time for another word doodle.  Being.  I have mentioned Being with a capital "B" in numerous previous posts.  In fact, I used "Being" in my very first blog post in 2008 about my trip to Alaska.  What do I mean by the term?  Some hint can be gained, of course, by its usage.  In this post, I'll attempt to spell it out more clearly. Being is examined in western theology and philosophy and in various eastern spiritual traditions but, surprisingly perhaps, it hasn't been commonly considered.  That is, you have to search more diligently than one would expect to find perspectives on Being. The two most famous western teachers who address Being are both very controversial in their own right.  But that does not concern me.   Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger , two of the 20th Century's most globally influential philosophers, both wrote a great deal about Being.  And they serve as my starting point because I have read them all my adult life. Heidegg

The big duds

I haven't blogged nearly as much about Election 2012 as I did four years ago on Election 2008. One reason for this is I'm waiting for the "spring training" phase of the process to move into the "regular season" and that doesn't start until after the conventions. But the truth is I have wanted to blog about the presidential race for awhile now. Only every time I pause to give it some consideration I end up uninspired by any of it. With Rick Santorum’s final “ Gettysburg Address ”, the contested part of the Republican primary process has come to an unofficial end. Mitt Romney will almost certainly be their nominee and will face President Obama in the fall 2012 election. What, if anything, have we learned? First of all, the republicans are a fragmented bunch. Roughly speaking, Romney's support came from “the establishment” republicans , what’s left of the traditional Eisenhower-Reagan core of the party which, judging from the primary results

Ripples of Richter

Spontaneous or same-day diary blogging captures the moment but my recent post on visiting the High Museum only covered the surface of things. It is a virtue that self-reflection can hold a special moment with you rippling through time and deepen your appreciation of its significance. Here is how that serendipity moment of my discovery of Gerhard Richter happened at the High. As my daughter would say, "this is how it all went down." I walked out of the main exhibition area and upstairs with Jennifer. It was four flights of very wide but austere, concrete steps and we went up one level. The ceilings, obviously, are high at the High. Upon entering the new exhibit level, I immediately appreciated that there were far fewer visitors up there. It was a bit quieter in that instead of a steady roar of voices you could hear specific voices and they echoed. I was first attracted to a very interesting contemporary painting-sculpture by Anish Kapoor, Marsupial , 2006. After view

Close to the Edge

There was an amazing evening outside my house last night. A bright clear full Moon rising in the east. Open star-filled sky above. Meanwhile, violent almost continuous heat lightning happened all along our western horizon, slowly crawling higher in the sky. Too far away to hear thunder. According to various weather radars on my iPad, a large patch of multiple strong storms was moving slowly from around Huntsville toward northwest Georgia. The storms shot towering light-grey clouds thousands of feet into the pristine night sky. The clouds looked puffy and textured in the strong light of the Moon. The vividly luminous nature of the lunar surface made it easy to walk around outside without the aid of any other light. My body cast a long shadow. I was on the edge of it, betwixt flawless dark clarity and churning natural fireworks. Venus and Jupiter were clearly aligned forming a dagger straight into the storm which now overwhelmed the horizon and tall expanse of western sky.