“This is not a tough man’s world — it’s a thinking man’s world.“ ~ Mike Tyson As the war rages on in the Ukraine I’ve been asking myself, are we not testing once again what kind of world this is? The pictures are of a gruesome place where bullies rule. The war in Ukraine is only the most recent that was conjured in darkness, fabricated … Continue reading Lord of the Rings Revisited »

“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.”  ― George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron) At some point or another we’ve all been exposed to ideas that have divided us into opposing camps. Some ideas are more strident than others, some more malicious, but all are biases and all make up the habitat of sectarianism. … Continue reading How My Mind Was Opened »

“The heart’s affections are divided like the branches of the cedar tree; if the tree loses one strong branch; it will suffer but it does not die; it will pour all its vitality into the next branch so that it will grow and fill the empty place.” — Khalil Gibran It appears war might claim another limb on our tree as it has so many times … Continue reading Ode to a Cedar (with Otissus) »

It’s impossible to describe the enormity of the change that has been set upon the world with Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. Certainly, the world I’ve known since my birth in 1948 has suddenly evaporated. Ambassador George Kennan, the architect of the “containment” policy in the the post-World-War-II age wrote: “Anyone who has ever studied the history of American diplomacy, especially military diplomacy, knows that … Continue reading Children in War »