Heliocentric
Laughing at Icarus as you watched him fall,you built your fortress: a heavy investment in happiness.Imagining a life of light suffusing the courtyard,you made the walls high and covered the ground with mirrors. But the sun will not be told…
What Do You Stand For?
As I near the end of The Rape of the Mind, I look at the world I live in and think back over the past three years—and even over the last century—and I feel gratitude for the people in the…
Hope is Enough
Hope is an instinct only the reasoning human mind can kill. —Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory Greene makes his statement about a starving dog with a broken back or broken legs that drags herself to the door of…
Don’t Believe Their Answers
Generally what is more important than getting water-tight answers is learning to ask the right questions. —Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water When I came across those words about a decade ago, I had no idea how true they’d turn out…
Peace on Earth
Has there ever been peace in the world, and if so, will there ever be again? I suppose it depends upon who you ask. Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, has an image of world peace that looks…
New Narratives
It has arrived: the first day of 2022. Why have I looked forward to it with such longing? Is it simply the notion of starting fresh, cleaning out the old and tired and worn? Is it that 2021 was a…
Worming into Our Consciousness
Since I seldom seem able to go forward without shifting into reverse first, I am approaching a new post by looking at an old one—as a matter of fact, the first post here at The Ruff Draft. On August 11,…
The Compartmentalization of Attention
Thanks to the attention-span-killing Internet, it becomes harder to pay anything the attention it deserves. This works well for those who exploit it. What was earthshattering news last week can barely be recalled today. We more easily forget and, to…
Peaks and Valleys
At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo says to Sam, “Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years.” My mind continually…
