All the big hairy questions about the mind, matter, the reality of reality, trees falling in the forest, consciousness, and so on will probably not be fully answered (not even by these podcasts)for a long time to come. Still, it's interesting to see that science often has to step outside its own borders to develop explanations for the newer discoveries, and how close this sometimes takes it to the territory of philosophy and spirituality.... read more

This reading comes from An Endless Trace by Christopher Bamford. This being autumn, maybe our thoughts turn naturally to images of releasing and transforming. I'm thinking now about sacrifice, both the outer, visible kind we may make and the inner, invisible kind Bamford suggests we are always experiencing.

I (Fred, that is) am starting a new thing with this installment. I plan to post some readings of written passages that appeal to me, or spark my interest in some way or another. The idea is not to preach but to sow ideas around in a way that gives people food for thought, or for play, or imagination.

There is enough intellectual debate already on the Internet. There are a lot of scholars... read more

My parents' house was robbed a few weeks ago, evidently in broad daylight. The thieves knew what they were after--silverware and nothing else. The job was neat, quick, not too thorough, and overall creepy.

Our good friend Doug told this tale from his days on board ship in the later years of the Vietnam war. Boys will be boys....

I intended to write a story; it was to be a story of a powerful dragon, called Word, who outlasted all attempts to conquer it, though there would be one warrior who would alter the tale forever, of course. The dragon was neither malign nor benign but simply vast, maybe unknowable, and champions fell and died at its base the way climbers die on forbidding mountains, and for the same reasons.

Before the story began,... read more