Month: January 2014

• January 24, 2014

  ‘I look at the desert and I am besotted…’

  I look at the desert and I am besotted. Only, a dove atop a Joshua tree below copper-sage boulders. Near dusk, my fingers as singular as hers.
• January 23, 2014

  Hunger and spiritual exercise

  Hunger can come over one with such force that one feels gripped by the claim that one must eat now. This is urgent, serious business, and one must do something about it forthwith. Not always or not often is hunger signaled so discernibly by a growling, turning, or twangy-sounding tummy. Mostly, it is indicated by…
• January 21, 2014

  The eager volunteer

  Think back to a time early in your schooling. Recall the moment (maybe it was in third grade or sixth) when your teacher asked for a volunteer. One boy’s hand shoots up into the air–that boy, you think–and the teacher, looking at him, quips, ‘But I haven’t even told you yet what you’re volunteering for?’…
• January 20, 2014

  A non-solopsistic account of grieving

  In order to understand one’s reasons for grieving, let us return to this scene: We are speaking of our deaths. ‘Were I to die first, would you grieve for me?’ Aleksandra is speaking. ‘Yes,’ I reply. For a while, I say nothing. Then I go on: ‘I would have to figure out why I was still living.’…
• January 19, 2014

  Preparation for having a philosophical conversation

  The following post is addressed to new conversation partners as well as to philosophical friends. This worksheet (if that is what it is) is the result of a few years of conversing with conversation partners and philosophical friends over Skype. It should be considered a work in progress. That is, it is open to adjustments, reconsiderations, and…