Month: January 2014

• January 31, 2014

  Scenic lookouts and recipes for living

  You’re told that a scenic outlook up ahead is exquisitely beautiful. Well-worth the time, you’ve been assured by phone. You trust this friend and are willing to go along with his recommendation. So, you and your traveling companion look ahead, therefore, with eager anticipation that this exquisitely beautiful outlook will provide some respite from your…
• January 30, 2014

  The nightwatchman is always fooled

  The nightwatchman is on the lookout for the intruder. He is instructed to be vigilant. He has learned by rote the common routes, and he has devised certain stratagems for staying awake, for being alert. But the danger always comes by surprise whenever and wherever he was not looking. He was looking but not for…
• January 28, 2014

  Dangling on a branch

  Our lives dangle on a branch. While the fool wishes to be held firm or let go, the wise man dangles freely.
• January 27, 2014

  Preparing for the unforeseen (A welcome joke)

  Darkness. Philosophy. Not knowing what is coming but coming prepared anyway. How? Laughter. Eagerly anticipating (is that so?) or slightly unsteady. Fearful, maybe a little. Meanwhile, as still as the desert sand, life is. Are we? Not knowing but here and ready. We say. I tell the story about the pupil who wants to learn…
• January 25, 2014

  Our minds aren’t in our heads

  Yesterday, I finished reading Alva Noë’s Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness. The book is mainly a critique of research programs in the scientific study of consciousness and perception, and in this respect it does not intend to set out a full-blooded account…