Those planning to rush ahead with plans to “repeal and replace” (“replace”? really?)) the Affordable Care Act owe it to their constituents to listen to what they want—in some cases, not what they say they want, but what they really want, which is often clearly different: there is plenty of evidence to show that many Americans don’t realize…
Intensity
I just read the text of the Tr*mp inaugural address. I had promised myself not to actually listen to it, but then, in the car, on the way to a medical appointment, the radio happened to have remained switched on from yesterday, so I found myself listening to about…
Ill Will
I’m with John Lewis. I plan to boycott the Tr*mp inaugural. Not in the flesh, of course, but at least on television. I’ll not watch it. I’m in agreement with the Congressman that the Tr*mp presidency is not legitimate. There are just too many indications that the election was not…
Panic Attack, Revisited
I had an interesting exchange yesterday on my Facebook page when a reader responded to my entry expressing fear about the coming Tr*mp inauguration. Noting that one of my blogs is called “The Buddha Diaries,” he wrote, I could “obviously” not have been practicing meditation if I was experiencing the feelings I expressed…
Panic Attack
I cannot remember ever having been so riddled with anxiety about the future of our country and the world. There has never been a comparable situation before this. We are on the eve of inaugurating a “president” of the United States […] whose unpreparedness for the office is monumental
The Deal
I find myself shuddering every time I hear that word, these days: the “deal.” Everything, it seems, in Tr*mpworld, is reduced to the deal, no matter whether it has to do with trade, where it seems appropriate, or health care, education, foreign relations… where it isn’t…
Film Review: Art in Heaven
In the opening scene in Jessica Elisa Boyd Art in Heaven, we find her protagonist, William, an Anglican priest, in a life-or-death crisis at the edge of a large body of water. At the end of the scene, in which we are invited to share his inner conflict in the vast and inscrutable context of nature itself, he reluctantly chooses…
‘Waking Up’, by SAM HARRIS: A Book Review
…it surprised me to find this book by Sam Harris so helpful in my own search for a deeper meaning in life; and I was more surprised still to discover, halfway through, that Harris’s path had led him to the study and practice of…
The Unknown Terrorist, by Richard Flanagan: A Book Review
This powerful and still most timely book was published in 2006, and it came to my attention by pure chance, as I searched through my shelves to see what could be donated to the local library. Here was one, I thought, that looked interesting, and set it aside to read. I have no idea how it reached…
‘Van Gogh and Nature’ at the Clark
Excellently installed to facilitate viewing, and with usefully informational wall tags, the exhibition starts us off with a handful of the earliest drawings, dating from 1881 to 1883. Here…