Essays
Philosophical and Political
What Is It Like To Be A Human Wondering What It’s Like Being a Nonhuman?
Over recent years publications have appeared bearing titles such as “What is it like to be a _____?” (tree or bird or…). Others ask “What does a ____ [tree or bird] know?” People have noticed that the evidence of their senses and from research point to forms of...
Becoming Elder Part II
What is reality? Way too big and mysterious a question so I’ll try this one: What is real within the bounds of life as I know or imagine it? In a sense, this is the unspoken question behind most of the choices we make over the course of our lives and is especially...
Becoming Elder Part I
I am camped in the northernmost reaches of the Sierra Nevada in California, a place I’ve come to faithfully for many years. I used to hike a lot of miles in these mountains. Now it’s fewer and more selective but with no let loss in my portions of inspiration and...
The Day After
The election is sort of over, thank the gods… As I switched off the computer this Wednesday morning the fourth of November 2020, the last headline I saw was this: “Presidential race too close to call.” I mulled this for an hour and the hidden clarity in this...
Fire First to Last
It is summer moving into the fall of 2020 and California has been burning for almost four months, over three million acres incinerated by mid-September and more on the horizon. Thousands of fires, many beginning small and some merging to form bigger ones. A record...