Monthly Archives: December 2012

my vacation reading

As I type these words it’s 8:40 a.m. in North Vancouver on this last day of 2012. Outside it’s 1° C, and still twilight. It’s a working day, but I hear no traffic. In my book Truth of the Python I … Continue reading

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how should I vote?

Ten years ago, when my temporary ordination as a Buddhist monk at Gampo Abbey was cut short by a ruptured Achilles tendon, and I was being driven to the bus stop by my abbey friend Geoff, he asked me, “Do … Continue reading

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the walking dead

A couple of weeks ago Kimmie and I watched season 1 of the HBO series The Walking Dead about a zombie apocalypse. The show had been recommended to me; otherwise I would not have tried it, having been so disappointed … Continue reading

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prose sketch: a break in Christmas shopping

Thu 20 Dec 2012 ca. 12:45 p.m. Park Royal South Triumphal chords of a horn arrangement of “Little Drummer Boy”: a kitschy march behind the thrum of Christmas retailing. A sense of alienation: people becoming gradually more and more mutually … Continue reading

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prose sketch: decorating Christmas cookies

Sun 16 Dec 2012 1:30 p.m. my kitchen The kitchen table in its windowed bay has become Kimmie’s atelier. The artisan sits in “my” chair, a green Christmas-themed apron draped down her front and back, bent over a yellow star … Continue reading

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Intellect: Mind over Matter by Mortimer J. Adler

Intellect: Mind over Matter by Mortimer Jerome Adler My rating: 4 of 5 stars This small volume (205 pages, including index) presents a forceful case for the existence of a distinct human nature that makes us fundamentally different from any … Continue reading

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prose sketch: the quiet living room

Sun 9 Dec 2012 1:05 p.m. my living room The place is quiet and empty: Kimmie and Robin are out shopping. Quiet but not silent, for there is the ever-present wash of traffic in front of the house, the soft … Continue reading

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prose sketch: front porch in the rain

Wed 5 Dec 2012 ca. 1:45 p.m. my front porch A cold day, with the pattering of rain. A feeling of shrinking into oneself, a craving for inertia, to wait it out. Let the somber cold grayness pass like the … Continue reading

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hey Google—want my money? come and get it!

Some years ago I made Google News my browser’s home page, feeling fed up with CNN, which had been my home page before that. I was excited by the idea of receiving news stories from many different sources, and by … Continue reading

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