When two paths open before you, choose the hardest one. – Buddhist saying “You’re kidding Tamarack!” were the first words out of Meg’s mouth after trekking up the new trail to my lodge. “What is wrong with the old trail? You’re going to break your neck trying to get up this one at night.” “Perhaps,…
Category: Miscellaneous Drivel
The State of Western Values
My mate Lety recently went to a talk given by a college professor on ISIS, acronym for the Islamic State insurgence centered in Iraq and Syria. He was discussing the appeal ISIS has for drawing recruits from all over the Western world. As he saw it, the primary reason was that we have bankrupted ourselves…
Why Harleys Rock
Three Harley-Davidsons just went rumbling by, and they enlivened something deep inside of me. No, it wasn’t the lure of the road or the biker mystique, and it wasn’t even the desire to get attention. It was something deeper than that. I quit thinking about it and let myself feel. Right away, I came to…
The Skinny on Food
For much of my adult life, I have been obsessed with food—not food per se, but rather the beliefs, preferences, and obsessions that govern what we eat. My exploration has helped me see through them and make some sense of my relationship with food. Following is what I’ve found: food simplified. There are only three…
Chutzpah Counseling
Standard psychotherapy practice is based on weekly or biweekly sessions, which generally last an hour. I know numbers of people who’ve been going to their counselors for a year or more, Friday after Friday or Wednesday after Wednesday, with no end in sight. It’s become such an established part of their lives that it’s like…
When Pain Is Passion
Why fill the gap, why ease the pain, why quench the hunger? When I do, I become a couch potato—no passion, no joy of discovery, only a coaster being spoon-fed whatever someone else has prepared for me for whatever reason. To be unsatisfied is to find satisfaction. To be cold is to find warmth. Let…
Why I Don’t Own Anything
I recently got a birthday card with an illustration of a monk exclaiming as he looked into a box he was just given by his fellow monks: “Just what I always wanted—nothing!” The card sender knew me well: I am a joyful pauper—I don’t own anything other than some clothes and a few personal items….
The Living Arrow
In Western cultures, there is a bow-making profession, with practitioners in English-speaking countries being called bowyers. People who hunt with bow and arrow are called bow hunters. There are books and magazines titled The Traditional Bowyer’s Bible and Bowhunting Magazine. All of this indicates that more emphasis is placed on the design, construction, and use…
Retirement Announcement
It’s time to step down—I have reached the pinnacle of my career. There can be no more glory, no more milestones to achieve. Another award-winning book would leave me flat. One more invitation to give a keynote speech, take a committee chair, or do a television special…uh-uh; give them to someone else. Ahem. I am…
Life Beyond Calendar and Clock
Right now, it’s around a mealtime after high sun, and we’re in the waning crescent of the Frog-Chorus Moon, after the Very Early Melt White Season. Do you know where you are in the day and season without a clock or calendar? I associate with two different kinds of people: one will look down at…