At times like these I wonder if our country has lost its collective mind. Concluding that it has, I can’t resist the temptation to wonder how things got this way. Of course there are no simple answers. But it seems to me that among the causes for this, the widespread propensity of many to act upon what they believe, as if those beliefs constitute...
Read MoreConnections: September 11, 1683, and September 11, 2001
Connections: September 11, 1683, and September 11, 2001 I have been fascinated with unusual connections since I was a child. I vividly remember watching as many episodes as I could of James Burke’s television programs Connections and The Day the Universe Changed in the days before the availability of TiVo, on-demand, or the instant access...
Read MoreJimi Hendrix and the Sound of Change
Jimi Hendrix and the Sound of Change Is it some peculiar quirk of our relationship with time, or perhaps the innate need to find meaning in the confluence of seemingly unrelated events, that leads us to view life altering events as inevitable when considered in retrospect? I ask because this year the 4th of April marked the 45th anniversary of a...
Read More“Disinterested interest” and the law of imagination: How can we encourage people to approach works of art with an open mind?
“Disinterested interest” and the law of imagination: How can we encourage people to approach works of art with an open mind? Like the memory of a faintly recalled melody whose origin one cannot quite place, I’ve recently found myself engaged in what could be described as an intellectual pas de deux of sorts—one where the ephemeral...
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