It’s now 19 days since my knee replacement surgery. Improvement on each days. I can get all about the house on my own power, without using even a cane. Stairs still need a little help, Pain level is now low, except after I do my knee stretching and bending exercises. I felt well enough yesterday to get out and go to my MEAH class. That’s the one on Jewish religious and cultural history. A bit hard to concentrate for two plus hours, but got through. Yesterday we examined the story of King David. I will be working myself back into… Read More
Continue ReadingOne Kind of Sustainability
I am back home after about 5 days spent a Lahey Hospital getting a new knee. It’s made of Titanium and should not need repair during my lifetime. It didn’t come with a lifetime guarantee, but given my age, it should be quite good for the rest of my life. My stay was uneventful, unless you consider replacing one’s knee a big deal. Although this operation has become quite commonplace and as routine as ever major surgery can be, it is quite miraculous. In on Monday; out of Friday, walking to car from the Hospital exit. The one thing about… Read More
Continue ReadingI’m Off for a Bit
I will be absent for a week or two, depending how long it takes for my new knee to settle in. Getting a replacement for a very cranky joint tomorrow.
Continue ReadingBeware Moral Hazards, Systems Blindness, and Shifting the Burden.
Most of the response to COP21 has been positive. Fossil fuels have had their day. 2° C looks to be within reach. There seems to be little doubt that the rate of greenhouse gas emissions is going to slow. The naysayers point to the lack of strongly enforceable provisions and to the dependence on acceptance by future politicians. A few of my friends raise issues about the incompatibility of the targets with already established growth policies and the historical lag of efficiency increases relative to growth. In the systems thinking/dynamics world where I continue to spend time, The entire COP21… Read More
Continue ReadingFor Every Complex Problem, There Is an Answer That Is Clear, Simple, and Wrong.
So almost said H.L. Mencken as part of a longer aphorism. The whole quote is, “Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.” This misquoted part does however make the point I am trying to do. This quote should be placed at the top of every story in every medium dealing with the latest round of terror and almost everything else being touched upon in the current political battles for the Presidential nomination. The best solution, one that I have yet to hear, is to… Read More
Continue ReadingInternet Addicts Anonymous
For a long time I have been asserting that technology, which has become a generic remedy for all our concerns, is a cultural addiction. We almost always look to some form of technology whenever a society-wide problem crops up, but also turn to some device to solve our individual problems. The results of such mindless, reactive practices are several-fold. First, the underlying problem is usually left unaddressed, leaving the causes in place waiting to produce more symptoms after a while. This pattern is called fixes-that-fail by systems thinkers. If the root causes persist over long periods, the behavior shifts to… Read More
Continue ReadingThanksgiving 2015
It is a beautiful New England autumn day. I am sitting in my third floor office looking out at a sunlit scene. The hammering that has been incessant for several weeks is missing. Construction is all around our house. Ruth is downstairs making pies to take with us to friends for dinner. Our family. It is a perfect day to reflect. Being in a philosophical mood these days, the first thing that crosses my mind is, “What does it mean to be thankful?” I find this question very difficult to probe. What does it mean to be thankful? To what… Read More
Continue ReadingFinding Care in Other Places
My wife and I belong to a Cinema Club where we see and discuss movies that are about to hit the screens. Today the film was a “documentary” titled, “Where to Invade Next.” After all the war-like occurrences in the last few weeks, I nearly left as I read the title. But I read further and saw that this was the latest movie by Michael Moore, who has brought us some terrific provocative flicks in the past. I am very glad I stayed, as the film is as good as anything he has done. Starting with the premise that the… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Than Ever, We Need Reason
I have been taking a short break. Sorry not to let you know in advance. I am running a bit short on thoughts these days. I find it very hard to keep focused on flourishing when there is so much bad stuff going on in the world. Some of my more critical concepts are taking a beating. The tragedies in Paris and elsewhere perpetrated by Islamic terrorists show a complete absence of care and connectedness to the world. The best word I find to describe these murderers is inhuman. They lack any characteristics I would use in talking about what… Read More
Continue ReadingWake Up!
We have passed a milestone that we need to acknowledge. Slate published news about a critical event in the ongoing saga about climate change. This is not some theoretical prediction. This is real. It’s past the time to talk about climate change and get down to business. Maybe this will propel action at the forthcoming COP meeting. > On Monday, scientists at Britain’s national weather service, the Met Office, said our planet will finish this year more than one degree Celsius warmer than preindustrial levels for the first time. That figure is halfway to the line in the sand that… Read More
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