Gnosce Te Ipse

After decades of clinical awareness, why some still glorify or miscomprehend combat is inconceivable. Check out this link for a very moving article about the price one man and his family is paying. Be sure to click on the story link above the photo. That's all for today.

I've been working on another post on the Torah and the Exodus and faith in general. My faith-moods swing so wildly. One week I feel sure (mostly) of my Christianity, another week I feel the opposite. Not necessarily for any significant reason, either. It can be as simple as reading one critic online who fell away from his faith (apart from any rational argument I find convincing). It can be me simply thinking (too much?) about question I don't have answers for. But this is one of those hard days. *** I had a student go off in my am. lit. class Wed., at least I consider it going off. This guy wears an ascot tie with short sleeves and a sweater vest and brings printed copies of articles from critics he expects me to know. I do not mind if a student brings in outside information; but this is a survey with several dozen authors covered, this is a community college, and dammit I have five freaking classes only one of which is american lit. I'm not an americanist who liv...

(Once again, dearest S, there is nothing here for us; I continue to work through my past to fully embrace my present; please pass by this post). I have a little time on my hands the first week of the semester; S is working and Mikey is at school. The laundry just started and I want to lift (Mikey has a weight bench in his room now). I haven't had time to use my blog for much of anything the last few months. This is one of the stories I began earlier on the blog and want to finish. Barber's Adagio for Strings is playing and will keep playing. The beauty of memory, all memory, the poem of consciousness...the power of human memory styles itself into healing narrative... Part 3 of this story is here. If my earlier posts on this relationship were dark, I'm afraid much greater darkness is coming. *** I was hangin' by the phone, tired Of sleepin' alone Baby tell me where did I go wrong? When Minutes seem like hours and Days seem like weeks, how could A year last so fu...

Yep. I not only rode the lift to the top of the mountain I boarded all the way down. And after only two days this season, and three days ever, I do a decent job getting down the mountain. The hardest thing is the leg work-out! I have to get back to work, but for me, this was a huge accomplishment. Huge. A fear I've had for twenty or more years is gone. Gone. Love to all. t

I wrote a while back about how my fear of heights had kept me from learning to ski or snowboard. Considering I live, at most, 40 minutes from a major Tahoe resort this is kinda sad. I had a friend take me up maybe three weeks ago and show me some basics but I chickened out on taking the lift all the way to the top of the mountain. Tomorrow my son's school is having a snow day and dammit, I'm going to the top if I have to put a bag on my head or close my eyes and chant all the way (someone let me know when to lift my board tip please). This accomplishment, if I actually pull it off (and survive the trip back down the mountain!) will be a very big step for me. Also, my skipper is planning a sailing trip for two weeks this July in the sea of cortez. Hitch: flying to La Paz. If you read you know I've never flown on a commercial plane in my life and it is my biggest phobia. My wife has already said she's going. One guy is going to drive: two weeks each way, he says....

Hey gang, I've been in a recent discussion with another blogger HERE on some pretty heavy issues. I'm not sure if Eddie is the blogger of residence, but the blog owner is struggling with (losing?) faith in Christ and Eddie, who I've exchanged a few comments with, seems to be beyond struggling and into disbelief. Eddie's read a bit and thinks, and we've been kicking back and forth a few things (always hard to do in the comment section of a blog). Please check it out if you can. Funkiller, I know, has been down some of this road. If I have time, and this exchange really is very, very important to me even though schools starts Tuesday!, I'll do some writing on his points here where I have more space. All is well, but I gotta run. t

Actually, I've been back for a few days but I've needed a vacation from everything, including my blog. I'm in one of those places where I'm not sure what to do with this thing. I need to update the look, start uploading photos, and tell the deeper pieces of my story. All this takes time, and I'm back to campus for meetings day after tomorrow. I will say a few things, though. The very best thing about my trip was seeing my brother and his wife and two adorable kids. They're 4 and 1 and beautiful beyond belief. I deeply enjoyed that time. S and I spent New Year's with some wine industry friends who import French wine and our group drank bottle after bottle of boutique Champagnes, culminating with the finest I've ever had (I admit I've never had the biggies, Dom, Dame, Cristal, but I hear those are grossly overrated; our friends don't even sell them). We had oyster shooters, all that. It was great, but it didn't come close to matching on...