Lives on Earth

time

  • The Spiritual and the Sentimental

    The word sentimental doesn’t get good press. “Having or arousing feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia, typically in an exaggerated and self-indulgent way” is how the usual definitions run. “Exaggerated and self-indulgent” emotion does sound pretty unwholesome. But I see… Continue reading

  • Genesis for Non-Theists

    Creation narratives are lively stories.  In the Bible, God creates the universe and earth in six days. In other traditions, creatures are dismembered, huge eggs hatch, birds create land.   Even science’s own creation narrative starts with a Bang. And… Continue reading

  • The Music Man

    Recently I stopped by a music store in town to buy banjo strings. I hadn’t been in the store for at least ten years. I remembered it as a hive of kids and grown-ups trying out guitars, pianos, and clarinets,… Continue reading

  • The Very, Very Long View

    From yesterday’s New York Times (9/28/2014), a chart of the artist and his particles over billions of years.    Me and the Universe By ANDERS NILSEN SEPT. 24, 2014 Anders Nilsen is the author of the graphic novel “Rage of Poseidon.” Continue reading

  • Forgetting

    A version of this post appeared here at this time last year, shortly after Sandy. Hurricane Sandy seems long gone, and the memory of ten days without light and heat is slowly fading. But I haven’t yet forgotten the train-roar… Continue reading

  • The Family Dog Grows Old

    Good health in an eleven-year old Golden Retriever is, I’m told, a blessing. It certainly seems so. Ginger hasn’t had any observable cancer. She is always up for a walk. And she eats well, from a menu that includes bites… Continue reading

  • Five Reasons Why I’m Afraid of Dying—and Some Reassurances

    I’m not in any immediate danger of dying—beyond the usual unpredictables—in that I’m only 69 and quite (though not perfectly) healthy. But the future looms, and I try to feel clearly the fears that go through me when I think… Continue reading