The Wonder of Mitochondria
When I get blue about the foibles of our species, I think of all the trillions of processes that do their job perfectly day in and day out to keep us in the here and now, even when we are [...]
Pity and Judgment
Two recently viewed documentaries depicted individuals that caused me an uncomfortable emotional response. One, a young Ethiopian boy living in a shanty without running water or electricity, was intelligent and resourceful, but left me wondering what hopes exist for the [...]
A Different Kind of Job Loss
In what seems like a lifetime ago (this past February), work had begun for the seventh annual OLLI Open House to be held July 24. This free public event has been sponsored by the 2100+ member Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Southern Oregon [...]
Cardioversion: a Metaphor
Lately, I have been thinking about heart rhythm. My beloved daughter encountered a serious arrhythmia in the last trimester of her recent pregnancy. There is a new life but also one in peril. Because the aberrant heart beat has coincided [...]
Privacy
We do not have a housing shortage. We have a privacy excess. How did we Baby Boomers, in the space of a generation, become a people—and I include myself among them—who cannot share living space with others? It has gotten [...]
Boomers: “Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation”
The Who, in their song "My Generation," stutter, "Why don't you all f-fade away?" Well, we Boomers know the answer. We have never done anything quietly. As Dylan Thomas suggests, we will "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." And it will be [...]
A Crisis of Care
I’ve been absent from my blog during the 2016 political season, mostly spectating on the dismal national scene, but increasingly active on the local level around a critical issue that is briefly mentioned in Touched by Fatality. For adults experiencing [...]
Far From the Tree: Gymnasts and Christ
I read Andrew Solomon’s book Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity several years ago as I was struggling with how to be a better parent to a child whose worldview seemed so different from my own. [...]
“Mine the Sorrows”
An overarching theme in Touched by Fatality is voiced by the character Peter McPherson: “Loss…is the common denominator we humans share.” What will we lose? Everything—jobs, friends, family, home, identity, health, sometimes our mind—and always our life. Foreknowledge of the inevitability of losses, [...]
Pollution and Immortality
I come from a line of polluters. If you want to take the long view, it’s an apparent species trait. Sapiens have been overpopulating, pooping on, and plundering the Earth for millennia. In more present times, Grandpa Bellegia worked for [...]