Essays

Philosophical and Political 

Living Towards Ends

Not long ago I wrote an essay[1] about what are called “existential risks,” aka “X-risks,” those calamitous possibilities (e.g., nuclear war, anthropogenic climate disruption, pandemic, and more, sometimes referred to collectively as the polycrisis) that are considered capable of rendering Homo sapiens extinct, or nearly so, and our present ways of life definitively so. I did not write about...

Aging: The Surprise

I awoke today preoccupied with thoughts about aging and its place in a life—Thoughts about aging as a phenomenon and as my experience and how it came on me as a surprise. I then moved to an obvious question: When does aging begin? (I know well enough when it ends.) My assumption is that it’s primarily a physical process with each step linked to mental accompaniments: emotions, interpretations,...

A Patient’s View

These thoughts are sent into the dentistry realm not from a dental practitioner or researcher but from a patient. I presume to do so based on two facets of my history. First, I have far more than the average level of dental problems (although perhaps not disproportionately since I am 79 years old) and have seen and/or talked with 8 or 9 dentists about my needs over the last three years. This...
Plant Sentience

Plant Sentience

Since my meditation on plant mind a couple of days ago I have been rereading The Hidden Life of Trees, a book I’d first read a half dozen years ago when it was published but wanted to refresh my mind about as I have become more intrigued with the notion of plant...

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A Grand Mystery

A Grand Mystery

I don’t fear falling into anthropomorphism when I think as I did yesterday. The label is used erroneously far more often than not, it seems to me. I will cheerfully call it anthropomorphism when I read on my almond milk container these words: “Shake me up. After...

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Presence

Presence

We walked again this morning but less ambitiously than yesterday: a mile or so out, a long sit on a well-placed lava chunk, and then back. Twig seems as much drawn to tranquil being-there as I; she shows no signs of impatience however long we sit. The longer we stayed...

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After the Fire – Continued

After the Fire – Continued

It was cool days and cold nights when we arrived two days ago, but that has been replaced with hot days and cool nights. So, Twig and I used the morning to take an ambling walk around what is called Cave Loop, probably three miles or so. Most of the trails will be...

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After the Fire – Lava Beds National Monument

After the Fire – Lava Beds National Monument

 And these very conditions mean that some forests will not come back, and more landscapes will turn to arid and semiarid grassland. Each year more of what’s left will burn. A few days ago, I studied a U.S. drought map and the entire West was in some degree of drought...

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Post Fire Lava Beds National Monument

Post Fire Lava Beds National Monument

I have moved several hundred miles north of the lower Owens Valley where I was camped and am now at Lava Beds N. Monument. I was last here late last summer after the fire that burned 70% of the Monument; ironically, fires to the west brought so much smoke eastward...

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