I confess. I am frequently dismayed when reality does not meet my expectations, when once again my notions prove false. I feel mortified, humiliated, stupid. Some people claim to be delighted whenever reality makes them change their minds. They cannot make mistakes fast enough. They welcome the experience as a revelation, however painful it might […]
Book List – Arden Men’s Book Group
(a.k.a. The Fur Trappers Gild) We meet on the 2nd Monday of most months to discuss slow books, fast women, faster cars, the meaning of life, and the value of authenticity. Selections are often fierce white-knuckle fiction, chosen by those who have actually read the books they pick. Food and drink are often inspired by […]
Broken Lock
Yesterday, running my errands, checking off the boxes one by one, I was stopped cold. The doors to the art gallery I manage were unlocked and, try as I might, I could not lock them. The gallery was accessible to the world! What to do? My day was suddenly derailed. I was stuck. I couldn’t […]
Incarnate Ideas
Deep thinkers like you and me are fond of our ancient Greek philosophers, our Socrates, our Plato, but if we are also Christian, we believe that the Ideal is not separate from this world. We start with Jesus, God incarnate, the Word made flesh on Christmas Day, celebrated at every Eucharist with bread and wine, […]
Now No Way None
There is something right with the world. Again and again I pause in wonder. Whatever my task, it is momentarily delayed as I stop to marvel at what is and my unexpected place in it. Here, now, there is no way, none, that I could have planned for or predicted this home which welcomes me […]
Honored Things
PHOTO PRAYER 2024-06. They are mute; seemingly inert; senseless. Even so, I should care for things a lot more than I do. They deserve to be respected and honored even when their usefulness has ended. I am not as thoughtless as once I was. Now I hold a pencil stub or a pair of worn-out […]
Apartment Lights featured in Your Daily Photograph
This is not a prayer, but perhaps an answer to one. On June 21, 2024, Duncan Miller Gallery in Malibu selected my photograph “Apartment Lights” for their eBlast. The gallery had asked for images of New York at Night, so I went back through all the 51,615 photos I have not deleted since we moved […]
Review: India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha
This is an excellent, well-written introduction to the history of India after it became an independent country on August 15, 1947. In particular, this book effectively communicates the author’s understanding that it is something of a miracle that India continues to be one country under a parliamentary democracy rather than a host of small countries […]
The Schweers No-Pain Weight-Loss Plan
2024-03-21 — When the scale hit 203 today, I resolved to lose weight. My biggest challenge may be that I hate planning, timetables, and schedules. I like having my options open at all times. More than that, I love the idea of the unfettered life, doing what I want when I want. Yes, yes, I […]
Father, Son and Holy Spirit – A Kite Analogy
In 2009, I wrote that our relationship to the Trinity is like a kite. The wind of the Spirit lifts us; Christ, the string, connects us to our Father, the steady ground. How high shall we glidebefore we are gathered in? Fifteen years later, while reading Bohumil Hrabal’s 1976 short story “Too Loud A Solitude”, […]