Life’s diversity numbers in the many millions, and yet no two living things are exactly alike; all are heterogeneous. This is as true of oak trees and squirrels as it is of people, but the heterogeneous minds of people, particularly, generate many differing opinions. Among... Continue
Public Citizen
The world is tumultuous by nature, a whirligig of happenings only a tiny portion of which any of us knows about, not including the bubbling froth of thoughts and feelings in individual hearts and minds. With its endless storms and earthshaking, as if the vicissitudes... Continue
I started writing for The Sun in 2005, while I was Mayor of Sonoma. I’d write a “Mayor’s” column once a month, and thereafter continued to write monthly. I offered to write a weekly column and have been writing a column for every edition since... Continue
Call it a demiurge, cosmic force, or God; for hundreds of generations humankind has believed in a prime mover of the universe, a cosmic hand upon the wheel. The alternate idea, that the universe and life began accidentally or spontaneously without the intercession of a... Continue
I’ve been thinking about the French Revolution, how it led to the bloody Reign of Terror that killed tens of thousands and eventually to the tyranny of Napoleon. Some view such revolutions through the lens of class struggle: the inevitable revolt of an oppressed and... Continue
Mother Nature came crying to me last night. “I’ve had it,” she said, her tears falling loudly on the skylight, “I’m done.” But the creeks, dear one, had heard it all before, And just laughed. Life as we know it is impossible without water. Water... Continue
Life on earth is very, very old, a couple of billion years, at least, and nearly all the creatures that have ever lived have disappeared. Were it not for photographs, we’d lack a visual record of our recent past, let alone that of our ancestors.... Continue
The mind/body split is quite a persistent delusion, even though the two are inseparably bound. In a supreme act of imagination, “I am self” decides that it is something apart, not only from the body but almost from the rest of the universe. This tendency... Continue
My friend Richard Reoch recently lost his wife of 50 years. That experience prompted him to write the following about getting ready for anything. “Thank you for teaching us,” the nurse said to me as she took out her phone and photographed what I call... Continue
“We see that in modern times many stones lack the virtues formerly attributed to them.” - Petrus Garsias Episcopus, 1639 I was struck by the irony of learning that Representative Steve Scalise, a conservative Republican, is being treated for cancer with stem cells,... Continue