The calculus of harm is the topic of this recent Interchange on “On Climate Change and Non-Human Animals” with philosopher and ethicist Jeff Sebo. Beasts’ Burdens But the history of human thinking is simply full…
Browsing Category Nature
Between Hope and Defeat, History and Heaven
“God himself culminates in the present moment.” (Thoreau) What is “now” for? What if you “know” the future? Fairy tales and wishes of complete knowledge are always disastrous. If you know the hour of your…
Bubbles Like a Burning Glass
It takes little effort to find, all throughout the vastness of the digital nowhere, blog posts reproducing the words of Henry David Thoreau, in any season, on any natural or political phenomena. And here too…
A Muddle in the Middle: Dominion and Rule
Emerson begins his essay “Experience” (1844)–and here it’s good to remind the modern, the “now” of ourselves, that our thoughts have already walked the earth– Where do we find ourselves? In a series of which…
Mer-Manumission
Recently we listened to a podcast, Radiolab’s “Home Is Where Your Dolphin Is,” about dolphins and the iterations of scientific investigations about their intelligence based in trying to connect “linguistically.” Pretty interesting (for an infotainment…
Just a Kiss Away
In the post yesterday, admittedly a jumble, I began with “Gimmee Shelter” by the Rolling Stones from the album Let It Bleed, for several reasons. The first starts as a vulgar association–a shot and a…
Just a Shot Away
Oh, a storm is threat’ning My very life today If I don’t get some shelter Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away War, children, it’s just a shot away It’s just a shot away War, children,…
Minecraft, Or The Play’s the (Latest and Last) Thing
UPDATE: A Literary Addendum I know a boy who plays Minecraft somewhat as if it were his quest to reach the nirvana state that comes of internalizing the Jesus Prayer. I suppose he substitutes “Steve”…
Evolving To Heavenly Host
This morning a friend shared a link with me regarding the “good” of science spending as measured against the “evil” of suffering (“With all the suffering…“). Basically, why spend money on “exploration” when so many…
The Monkey Rope, Or Our Common Umbilical
We live in a kind of false paradigm of “self-reliance.” I don’t need to blame Waldo for this but perhaps he does bear a good bit of the burden for at the very least his…