In the shadow of the moon

I saw the eclipse, the total eclipse, and though I've seen pictures and knew what would happen, no words or pictures can match the effect of being there. It begins slowly, a sliver of the sun gone black, a sense of surreality at seeing such a common fixture in the sky and our psychology shifting …

Amazing ideas

You have them, all the time. And some part of you might want to hold onto them, to save them for later when you're 'better'. Or you might think that one idea is the best idea you'll ever have, and you might feel anxious to get it right. Well, you'll have a hundred other ideas, …

Annoying example of telling after you showed

I saw an advertisement recently for an app for an insurance company. The ad starts with a dark sky and stormy night over a large house with flickering lights. Scary music is playing and an old guy is looking terrified like it's haunted. Cut to a family having dinner and a baby is flailing away …

Bird watching

I recently started reading The Peregrine by J.A. Baker, and am stunned by the beauty of the prose. I have always been endeared by birds and though I've never gone birdwatching, this is making me want to. How he can go on about all the details of how these birds live, and make it so …

Infinities

The idea of dying, and being gone forever, never existing again, is scary. But the idea of always existing, forever, with no end no matter what you do, is pretty horrible too. Maybe humans fear/are repelled by ideas of the infinite because everything we know is finite. Would experiencing something infinite relieve that fear? Maybe, …