One recent evening, walking home in the pitch-dark Bahamian night from drinks at the local bar, we suddenly felt ourselves whirled into infinity. And it wasn’t the drink.
The Milky Way and the Zodiacal Light • Photo by Luis Argerich (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Detail from ”Saint Francis in Meditation“ by Caravaggio (ca. 1610)
Who was the real St. Francis?
I watched a truly awful movie the other night. Franco Zeffirelli’s “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” a life of St. Francis of Assisi made in 1973, perhaps the silliest movie ever made by a major director.
Photo by Fernando Lavin on Unsplash
Mr. Computer opens his letter bag
Dear Mr. Computer, my husband Vernon stays up late every night, sometimes til 3 or 4 in the morning, “cruising the information highway,” as he calls it.
Photo by Ralph Katieb on Unsplash
Groundhog Day: All sun and games
Elsewhere in the news this morning you will read or hear about Punxsutawney Phil, the famous Pennsylvania groundhog that did or did not see its shadow when it emerged from its burrow yesterday.
A remaining section of the Bering Land Bridge • Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (CC BY 2.0)
Coming to America — the first time
Raven was walking on the beach. He was lonely. He had the sun, the moon, the land and the sea, but he desired the company of other creatures.
Photo by Ravi Roshan on Unsplash
Define life? That’s easy to do…or is it?
What is life? No question in science is more fundamental. No question is more difficult to answer.
Enlightenment visionary Thomas Jefferson
Waiting in the dark
The Enlightenment has been taking its knocks lately.
Image by urikyo33 from Pixabay
But who’s worrying about those big rocks in the sky?
Doc, I’m telling you, my fear has become compulsive. I can’t sleep. Can’t eat. Can’t work. I go around looking up at the sky.
Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash
How to love the world of Cyp-40
There is only one question, says the poet Mary Oliver: “How to love this world.”
Photo by Hert Niks on Unsplash
World’s too big, Santa scaling back
Dear Friends, it is with considerable regret that I announce that this is the last year I will make my traditional rounds with reindeer and sleigh.