THE UNINVITED Almost everyone knows Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Wall.”  In it he repeats a warning refrain:                          “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,                          That wants it do

A SOAP BOX OF ONE’S OWN Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play, “A Doll’s House,” was critical of marriage norms though Ibsen demurred that his work was not about women’s’ rights. Rather, he said, the play was about the human need to identify oneself beyond a role or job description i

On Thursday, July 14 my blog post, “A Soapbox of One’s Own” will be published.   I’m asking anyone with a conscience to read it and to speak out by writing their Congressmen and the President by letter or e-mail.        Or if it suits, write a blog about justice.   �

TRUTH IN AN ORDINARY LIFE In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” the Prince of Denmark remarks that, to him, the world seems “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable” (Act 1, ii). Stale and flat are remarkably docile words coming from a young man who doubts his mother’s virtue and

A YAQUI WAY In the 1980s I began reading the works of Carlos Castaneda, a Peruvian born citizen who, several years earlier, was studying anthropology at the University of California at Los Angeles. His first work, “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge” was d

OF SQUIRRELS AND MEN Looking out my kitchen window this morning, I saw two squirrels at play. One had a nut of some kind and was being chased by the other. They ran up the bark of one tree and swung to the next with a speed difficult for my eyes to follow.  Eventually they disappeare

THE OLD MAN AND THE TREE An early walk through the park brought me to the tree where, months ago, I saw a homeless man sheltering from a May shower (Blog: 5/9/2011). At the time, all his possessions were gathered in a plastic bag, which he carried in a shopping cart. Today, he was kee

HOW TO MAKE A HELL OF HEAVEN In Dante’s vision of hell, he reserves the fourth circle (Canto 7) for sinners guilty of avarice and envy. Of course it could be argued these sins are sprinkled throughout the Inferno as certainly the betrayer, Lucifer, who resides in the deepest pit, wa

THE ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE On a recent walk through the park, I saw a mother pushing a baby in a pram while a boy of about three lumbered behind. At some point the toddler fell and began to scream with vehemence. Rushing to his aid, his mother set him on his feet again, but he pushed h

OF FAIRYTALES AND CYNICS In my corner of the world a phenomenon persists that defies local laws. I’m talking about the consequence of believing in street fairies. Most of us have grown up with the idea of fairies and elves and goblins who perform feats of magic.  For over a century