If you do a daily mind-clearing activity, you have a practice. It could be a yoga practice, or meditation. A singing practice, a dance practice, a walking, drawing, or jump-rope practice. A daily practice. At my house, as the promise of spring shifts to the promise of summer, I make the shift into Lawn Chair Practice. The basic requirement of Lawn Chair Practice is is to … [Read more...] about What Practice Makes
Radiant Light
The post-World War II family in which I grew up marked the months and minutes of the years with the rituals and disciplines of Irish Catholic fundamentalism. In plaid school uniforms we sang the call-and-response of morning Mass in Latin. We received the sacraments, made novenas, genuflected for the Stations of the Cross and ate fish sticks on Fridays. On the way to Saturday … [Read more...] about Radiant Light
Bark At Nonsense
Could it be that we’re a species that can’t survive its own intelligence? We’ve invented oil spills, radioactive plumes and chemical explosions. We’ve put heavy metals in all the wrong places. We’re responsible for dying oceans, altered climate, and resource wars that leave behind whole generations of brutalized survivors. We’ve normalized the militarization of policing, … [Read more...] about Bark At Nonsense
Mankind Syndrome
Syndrome: Some diseases and disorders resist definition. They are characterized by a shifting constellation of difficulties rather than a fixed list of symptoms. (Think: chronic fatigue.) Syndromes have an internal synergy that makes them tricky to recognize and treat. It can be hard to discern the syndrome’s causes from its effects, or to understand which effects of some of … [Read more...] about Mankind Syndrome
Rum Spirits
In a Friday market at the crossroads called Chada on the island of LaGonave in Haiti, I stopped at the rum seller’s table. I wanted to buy some kleren, local rum, distilled sugar cane spirits. “If you want some rum, you have to buy this,” the man said, and indicated a bottle of Babincourt, the Haitian national rum, bearing an undisturbed seal on its cap. I wanted kleren, … [Read more...] about Rum Spirits