Water is Life

I have a longstanding relationship with water. My fascination with the life cycle of water, the way we use water, and how water availability impacts our world has driven me throughout my life. Water has been the cornerstone in my decision matrix for everything from educational paths to where I live to philosophical schools of thought.

My relationship with municipal water is complicated. I am wowed by cities’ ability to treat water; sanitation plants are nothing short of amazing, really. But I also don’t really dig a bunch of chlorine and fluoride. I’m also appreciative of the inability of municipalities to keep their water treatment plants able to  maintain real standards with crumbling infrastructure and decades of underfunding, let alone address the many pollutants of modernity, from nanoplastics to pharmaceuticals.

Today, my loft-sized Berkeley arrived, and I’m over the moon about it.

Hiking Haul

We went in for one thing.

Because flowers

Local at this local bounty!

The Composite Incompossible

This was a lovely collaboration last year, and I'm delighted to see it published.

https://www.performancephilosophy.org/journal/article/view/354

The problem might not be the rain

I have a friend who's in a difficult space, and I'm not sure how to help. This makes my heart heavy.

Imagine the following situation:

Friend: I'm sitting in the rain and I'm getting all wet and it's kind of awful!

Me: Aren't you near a covered patio?

Friend: Yes, but it feels too far away and I don't want to go there.

Me: I sent you an umbrella through Amazon. Did you get it?

Friend: A man came and delivered a box and maybe that's it so I think so, yes, but I can't think about that because it's raining harder and I feel awful and now it's cold, too. Can I come to your place?

Me: No, I'm not available now.  Open the box and open the umbrella.

Friend: Wait, what? That sounds like a lot of instructions and the problem is that I'm wet and cold. Can you come pick me up?

Me: No, I can't. Open the box.

Friend: . . . 

Me: . . ? 

Friend: Never mind the rain stopped and everything's good, there are birds and I look hilarious because I'm drying out now.

We have had  this conversation a number of times, and I'm starting to think the problem isn't the rain.

Peace is a choice

Death Blowing Bubbles

"Death blowing bubbles" 18th century. The bubbles symbolize life's fragility. This plaster work appears on the ceiling of the Holy Grave Chapel in Michaelsberg Abbey, Bamberg in Germany.