I was watching the Democratic debates tonight, and heard Tulsi Gabbard talking about the word “Aloha”. She says that it is so much more than marking comings and goings of meetings of strangers and friends — it is the recognition that we all share a connectedness, whether it is our […]
Fiction
24 posts
The new cosmology could be ushering in a profound religious, moral and ethical consciousness similar to the science of Galileo. In that time, the mere transition from a topocentric to a heliocentric viewpoint was considered blasphemy by the established church. And indeed, cosmology does seem to drive beliefs, an answer […]
What do I mean when I say that “I like to eat meatballs at 1 A.M.“? This statement (or it can be phrased as a question, as in “Do you like to eat meatballs at 1 A.M.?” I like to eat meatballs. I like to eat at 1 A.M. I […]
When I think about infinity, I usually start with a straight line, or an open highway stretching off in the distance to a vanishing point. But to a pioneer, infinity is really about discovering new worlds. You can stop anywhere on that open highway — and there discover a new […]
Alvin Toffler wrote a book called “Future Shock” back in 1970 which posited the premise that individuals and society, as a collective whole, was experiencing a psychological syndrome akin to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This had been known to first World War (‘the Great War’) as shell shock, from living […]
So, now, you are at a crossroads. A small town in the middle of the desert, a highway going East to West, a highway going North to South. There are more roads. A storekeeper at the gas station keeps an eye on the traffic. Much of it is familiar faces, […]
Thinking about running away from home, most individuals naturally confront a natural question. “If I walk out, where do I end up?” By naturally, I refer to a logical consistency, a divine intelligence that would reason through all the possible preparations in the advent of any possible adversity. Of course, we […]
Two villagers decided to go bird-hunting. They packed their guns and set out, with their dog, into the fields. Near evening, with no success at all, one said to the other, "We must be doing something wrong". "Yes", agreed his friend. "Perhaps we're not throwing the dog high enough." joke […]
The trip to Zion began as a planned typically American family road trip. He looked at the route on the computer, searched for motels near the park, and reserved a room. But that’s where the normality ended. Her illness made all things ‘iffy’, by which I mean that all plans […]
They were driving on a lonely road out past Death Valley, a classic diamond desert trek. Just the two of them in the small ancient two door. It was spring and thankfully the air conditioner wasn’t needed. He had the heater to keep them warm and they alternately climbed over […]
Three Science Fiction authors that I remember well have surnames that start with “H” — Harrison, Haldeman, and Heinlein. All three of these wrote novels that were spring loaded with action which motivated and kept the plot moving. At their best, I would eagerly flip page after page, following the […]
Philip K. Dick wrote a bunch of science fiction books that I read back before I had a laptop computer, before I had an Android, or I-phone. One of those books is “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” I don’t think I ever read this book. I remember it as […]