Unimaginable

 

Fragmentation

 

Israel

 Israel is at war. And this is being covered by the media as a war. Casualties, strategies, security, destruction, analysis, interviews—the whole thing. But how many times have we seen this hate manifested—intifadas, terrorist acts, Palestinian men throwing rocks at Israeli tanks, walls, destruction of homes, killing of civilians, settlement expansions by Israel. The hate and brutality don’t end.

This life for both sides is the consequence when power and hate are more important than the courage to make peace. But this requires seeing the other as a human being.

Shoot the chidren

Let us shoot the children.
Let us train the children for terrorist attacks in their schools.
Let the bullets of AK-47’s rain down.
Let 3-year-olds get shot at home.
Let us narrowly interpret the Second Amendment.
Let assure there is a gun for every person in America.
Let us put law enforcement in danger of their lives.
Let us throw our hands up in hopelessness.
Let the mentally ill have their guns.
Let us put no restrictions on gun shows.

Let us Republicans protect the glorious Second Amendment. 

Hero

 A hero is chosen and accepts the harrowing and mysterious quest. They take the journey, even at the peril of their lives. They return to society transformed and enlightened with the task of enlightening others, a gift they freely give.

These days, media popularity is enough to make cheap heroes of entertainers and athletes while real heroes are lost to us. The real hero should inspire action, not envy and adoration.
The real heroes are not in comic books, but in the military, refugee camps, among the homeless, crusading against injustice and against climate destruction.
Fake heroes abound in the media. The real ones go about the business of making the world a better place.

Anatomy

Think of aging as an anatomy lesson. Suddenly, all the body parts you never knew you had or never paid attention to, all of a sudden cry out to you. Lungs, heart, liver, blood, skin, kidney, spleen, bladder…you get it. Through you and your friends, you get to know all the way they are misbehaving. Oops, a blood clot. Oops, some afib. Oops, an enlarged prostate. Oops, a hip replacement. So there it is. Your body telling you all about itself and it complaints. 

College education

In my experience, a college education is a chance to swim in the ideas of the great minds. It’s a chance to develop your voice. It’s a chance to develop the critical skills that you will use to make sense of the world. It’s a chance to understand what it means to be a human being.

But I think higher education is failing at this. Major sports have been pushed forward in fundraising and student recruitment. The public face of the university is sport. Graduates celebrate getting the diploma and expect the big paycheck to follow. Many don’t ask for more than that.

Descartes, Oppenheimer, Hawking, Hildegard von Bingen, Harriet Tubman, Schostakovitch, Lewis Thomas are all names that are less important that the names of basketball and football players. Coaches make more money than university presidents.