Over the last several years, it has become very clear to me that access to mental health services is one of the highest priority issues amongst residents of the First District. As many have said before me, years of catastrophic fires and the pandemic exacerbated... Continue
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In today’s increasingly digital world, technology has become an integral part of our lives, providing convenience and connectivity. However, as the internet expands, so does the sophistication of cybercriminals, who prey on unsuspecting individuals, particularly the elderly. This article recounts the unfortunate experience of an... Continue
A central Buddhist teaching is that being human means living in the realms of desire, and that desire and what flows from it - attachment, craving, grasping, defending, protecting - produces suffering. Sounds reasonable, and from what I can tell, is largely inescapable. As rock... Continue
The beaver dam is back along Sonoma Creek in Maxwell Farms Regional Park, after winter storms washed away the previous dams, as usual. We can find beaver dams here and there in the Sonoma Valley watershed, and the ecological benefits include slowing and storing water... Continue
Animals are alive; it’s so obvious as to be a tautology. Not all animals, however, are aware of being alive. As far as we can tell, human beings are the only ones. Opinion about awareness, and even more precisely reason, has varied. The designation of... Continue
Dog-lovers in the City of Sonoma can be forgiven for being puzzled about recent news from Mars. Mars Petcare, that is; an earthbound dog-food company which also makes candy for humans, a/k/a Mars Bars. Per a press release by Pets Lifeline, our Valley's animal shelter,... Continue
Our present human condition embodies an antagonism towards nature, one that explains the heights of our creative intelligence, the depths of our self-destructiveness, and how they have become one. Although of nature, humanity relentlessly seeks to master it, and in doing so prompts its own... Continue
Hilary Campbell is a New Yorker magazine cartoonist who just happened to grow up in Sonoma. Her work now appears regularly in the Sonoma Valley Sun. Continue
Last year I watched the movie, “Leave the World Behind.” The plot is an apocalyptic scenario in which external threats and internal strife break down societal order. Starting with a tanker ship running aground on the beach, then building the story that everything we know,... Continue
I’m hard-wired for formal prayer. I recite the Our Father when an earthquake hits and sometimes at night as I fall asleep. Then a Hail Mary arises, a woman about whom I hold equally wobbly beliefs. I surrender and move on to bless my family,... Continue