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Local “Reality”
Socially constructed reality has a physical existence in the world, but it is self-referential, and does not necessarily reflect any deeper reality. That is to say, it can be internally consistent (coherent) without making reference to the observed larger world in which it resides (correspondence). Yet it also creates the conditions which agents must navigate…
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The Cat and Carnegie Hall
It started with the cat. I was sitting on my couch, petting the cat (who had gracelessly and possessively slid down the back of the couch into my lap). I was enjoying it so much, and I somehow realized that, in this moment, petting this cat, the fact that many other people also enjoy petting…
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My Most Radical Claim
Magic is real. It is not a matter of bending reality to your will; it is a process of aligning your will with reality. The first step in making magic is to find your way down into awareness, the still point at the centre that knows exactly “where you are”. In the same way that…
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Avoiding
I can tell that the post I am working on is important by all the displacement activities I have been undertaking while avoiding it. I have been (in no particular order): making my bed on a regular basis doing my daily meditation sorting through my old things finishing off my projects that have been lying…
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Thrummed Mittens – Now with 18 % more fuzz
I went to a workshop last December to learn how to knit these fabulous mittens that have a fuzzy lining. Someday I’ll even put the thumbs on them. It was fun, and the mittens are pretty, and if you live near me and like knitting, I highly recommend going to The Bobbin Tree the next…
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The Cuteness of Cuttlefish
I know, it’s been a million years. Life, you know? Anyway. My kids are going along, doing cute kid stuff. My car died, and I got a new one, and the roof is leaking and we’re going to have to renegotiate the mortgage, and I still haven’t managed to place any paid writing, or even…
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The Conditioned Self and Enlightenment
What we experience as our “self” (the talking blah-blah identity part) is a bundle of beliefs and stories we have learned about the world. Some of those are verbal and we can articulate them, although they tend to be sweeping generalizations (1)… But they are also stored in our bodies, in the reactivity of our…
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Meaning is Not a Luxury
I feel silly even pointing out that one of the major debates in higher education is the employment skills vs. liberal studies question. But it is best to introduce your topic clearly, so let us be clear: this is what I’m referring to when I say that meaning is not a luxury. As I have…
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Primacy of Reason, Primacy of Text
We have lived for generations with a particular idea of an educated human being as the highest ideal, with a particular type of education being exemplary. The “best” meaning is that which has been most thought through, and the most clearly articulated in writing. To be human is to think, to think is to reason,…
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The Problem of Naming
“This is a Blarg,” said my partner, placing his glass of wine in the middle of the table. We were at a friend’s house late in the evening, on a rare vacation without our children. The conversation had taken a turn, as they frequently do in my world, for the philosophical. We had a moment…
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A Question of Scale
“You live at the boundary between the past and the future, surfing on the accumulated experience of a billion billion sentient beings.” You are somewhere in this universe. This should be obvious, but it cannot be overemphasized. You are somewhere. What is more, you are some size, and you will live for some period of…
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Voila! Instant Art!
I’m taking a Coursera course about art concepts, and this week the assignment was to create an environmental installation piece. Since I had it up, photographed, and down within 10 minutes, I felt that I should share it more broadly… give it a chance to breathe, as it were. So, without further ado, Garden Party!…