Exploring ideas

It’s not real. It’s not an actual piece of history. Don Quixote de la Mancha did not actually exist. Or did he? There are some stories that always make my face leak; Ole Yeller and Man of LaMancha are the top two, both of them fiction, but each is written about real human responses to…

Humans are hardwired to be passionate. We are also culturally encouraged to demonstrate our passions, mocking people who show none as being mechanical or having no soul. Another word often paired with “passion” is “love.” We swoon over “passionate love affairs.” In fact, a partner who fails to act passionately is often accused of being…

People often manage to control other people with words. There are even people who describe themselves as “Social Influencers.” What a LAUGHABLE title! And yet… it happens, more so to the young than to those of us who grew up reciting “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That…

I understand that not everyone will agree, or understand what I’m saying here. In fact, as I write this, I’m trying to understand this concept, myself, the importance of purple. A few years ago, I took a little shopping trip with a friend to one of those sprawling discount malls with all kinds of stores.…

Forgive me if I sound disrespectful, but I felt a need to complain about DOG. Of course, I feel guilty about it, but it is a fact that sometimes, even the most beloved dog can be a pain in the patootie. I must continually remind myself that she has no thumbs. That is to say…

So far, I’ve spent about 72 years trying to figure things out so that I can define what I know. Here it is. The more I know, the more I know that I don’t know. I am a reader, a listener, and a watcher. I should be more of a doer, but before I DO,…

I seem to keep jumping back to this subject and I did post something on a similar vein nearly a year ago. But this one takes a different tack without serious repetition. Forty-eight years ago, I gave an in-service presentation at the Lynchburg Training School and Hospital on the importance of music. My employment title…

Guess what. It’s Easter Sunday. This was a super important day when I was growing up. Whether Christian or Jewish, the Easter season included Purim, Passover, and the Day of First Fruits (not by coincidence). So, yes, virtually ALL civilized families that I knew of were seriously celebrating this series of days as THE most…

Sometimes, the answer to, “Why can’t I do this?” must simply be, “Because it’s wrong.” When did people become such weenies that they became afraid to say this? I think it might have happened around the same time that parents stopped using the final argument, “Because I said so.” As our society has slid farther…

I was in the shower thinking about the THEORY of Evolution versus the Bible STORY of Creation, trying a comparative analysis for an internal debate. I came up with a kind of amalgam to answer endless questions. (You can imagine what my hot water bill must be.) A second question to consider would be the…