If the young want to know why the old keep looking to the past, I’ll tell them.  Sometimes, we old folks  don’t like where the future is taking us.  Our measuring stick is Time and being  longer than theirs, the old can recognize the difference between progress and change.  W

I bumped into an acquaintance at the grocery store the other day. He said the previous weekend he’d attended a conference for writers.  What he learned from one book agent surprised him.  According to her, some authors are finding inspiration by using Google’s search engine.  T

I continue to be amazed at how little we humans know ourselves: how our brains work, what motivations govern us — many of which are unconscious — and how technology alters our mental processes. Take, for example, the GPS systems in today’s cars.  Not only does research

I recall in my college readings a story about David Hume, a philosopher of the 18th century, who believed only what his eyes confirmed — though he was wary of that information as well.  During a conversation with the literary figure James Boswell, Hume asserted a gap existed be

When I was a child, I’d often stand in front of the Philco radio and pretend I was a concert conductor. “Beethoven’s Fifth” and “Flight of the Bumble Bee,” gave me a good, aerobic workout as did Mussorgsky’s, “Great Wall of Kiev.” 70 years have passed and I don’t d

Recently, I came across a line in a news report that gave me pause.  “Mexican drug cartels earn some $25 billion selling drugs in the U. S.A.” (“The World at a glance…” The Week, May 19, 2017, pg. 8.) Add the profit from the Middle East drug trade and the sum doubles, e

During the North Korean famine  between 1994-1998, the government, unable to feed its people, allowed private markets to spring up so that individuals could buy, sell or barter among themselves for basic goods.  This small, capitalistic experiment, called jangmadang, was so

  We’ve come a long way from the Arab Spring when Facebook’s technology and that of other social media platforms stirred and facilitated freedom lovers.  Those who supported democratic movements thought they were witnessing technology’s miracle: the ability for ordinar

Not long ago, a blog reader wrote that the titles of my essays often hooked her into reading the text.  But of course!  That is my intention and I especially like it when I can draw a connection between my humble text and the work of a great artist.   Unfortunately, the new dictat

One of my Facebook friends remarked about the number of angry people in his group and wondered if some of them were as angry as they seemed, or if they accentuated their feelings for the sake of having an impact? Facebook scribbles and tweets do invite us to focus on the itch of the m