The Right Way to Flourish

I have not abandoned my web site although it would seem to be the case. The site went off-line a couple of weeks ago because I was hacked. Fortunately I keep a backup and was able to recover pretty quickly. The primary reason is not that, but simply a block that shows up every time I try to post something meaningful. I can’t find anything in the flurry of news and events I intersect with every day. I feel like I am walking through some distant foreign land I barely recognize. How can I write about reality and its child,… Read More

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Today is the Jewish New Year and I have just come back from services at my temple. While this holy day carries many challenging thoughts, the primary one that I took away was t’shuvah. The Hebrew word is most often equated with “repentance,” but its roots are closer to the meaning of “return.” But return to what? One of the best responses to this can be found in a song using the words of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Recorded by many voices, it also is reprinted in the prayer book we use. Return again, return again, return to the Land of… Read More

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I have avoided adding posts to the blog for several months. There is already too much noise and heat being generated about the current state of the political system in the United States. Yet, I cannot get it out of my mind. I cannot, with any honest concern, read the papers or watch the news or tune into any of the social media (I rarely do anyway). Yet I cannot get away from the continuing sense of foreboding I feel. For the last couple of years, I could have excused the failure to get involved as the result of being… Read More

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Last Friday, Ruth pressed me (not quite) to see, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the documentary film about Fred Rogers. I went with considerable skepticism that I would find anything terribly interesting about a film about television for children. I was wrong. I came home profoundly moved. Since then, I have read a number of reviews about the film from commentators other than film critics, all extremely positive. The film earned a positive review from 133 out of 134 reviews as reported on Rotten Tomatoes. Wow. You can search for filmic reviews, but I want to focus on the key… Read More

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This is not about church and state as the title might suggest, but about the growth of the establishment. This Saturday, like almost every one during the summer, I went over to the Brunswick farmer’s market. It is always a happening, a wonderful gathering of offerings and excited people to enjoy them. To be allowed to show the wares at this market, the goods have to be grown or made locally. The range of stuff is amazing. This season, two booths are selling farmed oysters, a product being pushed by both Maine economic and marine resources agencies. Oysters, as filter… Read More

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The concept of “future” has always been a daunting challenge to human thinking and action. No matter how hard we try to propel ourselves into the future, it always stays a step ahead. Like Sisyphus’s persistent attempts to reach the top of the mountain, we can never get to the future, no matter hard we try. Human existence is limited to the present. These statements are not intended to deny the existence of the concepts of past, present, or future, but only to situate human existence. We are alive only in the present. The past is the record of our… Read More

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William Butler Yeats famous line, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold,” is just one piece of his poem that has been used by others in the context of questions about the stability of the times. I find it extraordinarily relevant today, just about 100 years after it was published in 1920. Here’s the first verse. Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all… Read More

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I am still awaiting a go-ahead to publish my new book. In the meantime, I will start posting little dribs and drabs, hoping got keep you interesting. I have already posted a number of entries about the divided brain, one of the central concepts on which this work is based. I continue to belief that this model of how we think is terribly important in understanding how we have gotten into the present messes and, more importantly, how we can get back on the road to flourishing. A second element is that flourishing is the correct vision for human societies… Read More

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From today’s Washington Post: PUERTO VARAS, Chile — “Sustainability” may be a worthy goal, but the word has become cliché, now typically deployed in its adverbial form to modify various nature-exploiting activities like “logging” and “fishing” or the catch-all “development.” So let’s quit talking about “sustainable” this or that and face the overarching question about the future: Can we create a durable civilization in which humans become good neighbors in the community of life? Where our society is embedded in a matrix of wild nature that allows all creatures — from microorganisms to blue whales — freedom to pursue happiness… Read More

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I am back from our trip to Morocco, and have mostly caught up with my sleep and the hundreds of emails that had accumulated. I did have my iPhone along, but needed to respond to only a couple of timely messages. The trip taught me I can hit the “unsubscribe” link without missing anything important. It was a great trip. Morocco is very interesting. An Arab country, with remnants of old cultures—Roman, Jewish, Berber—mixed into a modern setting. We went from a few days of camping in the Sahara to snow-covered mountains in only a few hours drive. Here are… Read More

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