Technology isn’t a problem; it’s neither good nor bad, neither here nor there. The problem is that we come to technology with certain expectations, beliefs about technology’s capabilities and promise. Then, we, as a culture, don’t think critically about technology’s efficacy. Instead, we apply our technological expectations to ourselves. The basic premise of technology in …
Between 1954 and 1958, Rock and Roll ignited the American psyche. Born of a combination of rockabilly, blues, jazz, country, and doowop, Rock and Roll responded to a need deeply rooted in a cultural unconscious that had been sold ideas of traditional values and normative behavior. Identity: Being Special Like Everyone Popular culture grew out …
Rock and Roll, Mass Media, and American Self-Absorption Read More »
The myth of the outlaw stretches back to ancient times, Odysseus travelled beyond the boundaries of society. He defied various gods, and descended into the underworld. Bound to the mast of his ship, he heard the sirens’ call, struggled against his bondage, and gave a glimpse of a modern man bound to society’s regulations and …
How do we experience the difference between the map and the territory? A friend recently told me that he wanted to take a map, get lost, and use the map to discover where he was and what surrounded him. The conversation began with a comparison of our experiences as delivery drivers a decade apart, he …
The systematization of our lives, the ways in which we are ushered through space, time, relationships, and thoughts without a sense of our self, our surroundings, process, or potential effects, appears to have made us deeply emotionally constipated. We struggle to think something through in real time, in the moment, and we struggle to provide …
Barry Lopez—A Sense of Place Barry Lopez, the brilliant humanitarian, environmentalist, and writer who passed in 2020, wrote most often about the web of relationships found in particular environments. Lopez worked to cultivate in himself and others an openness to relationships, relationships to place, space, wilderness, and other animals. He argued that the loss of …
We live in the most systematized society in the history of the world. Everything we do processes us: how we move through space (streets, hallways, sidewalks, trails), how we spend our time (traffic, entrance lines, checkout lines, waiting rooms), and how we interact (apps, devices, emails, forms). We interface, touch base, connect, check-in, and reach-out. …
Whether in the country or in a city, relationships define our sense of self and other, our possibility and our limitations. We learn who we are through the ways others respond to us, and we act accordingly. Relationships aren’t something we have; they’re something we do. We experience relationships, and they, in turn, shape us. …
Metaphor, arguably, is the basic ingredient of culture. Metaphor rationalizes reality by defining it through abstraction, and through abstraction deepens experience and shapes understanding. Abstraction requires engaged perception. Hearing a metaphor is like breathing through your nose: you can’t help but smell the air. To have a living culture, we must actively negotiate the differences …
I want to send a big thank you to Debbi Mack for hosting me on her podcast Crime Cafe. We had a wonderful conversation, which you can view on YouTube or listen to on her podcast using the links below. If you’d prefer to listen to the podcast version of the interview, you may find …
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In each monthly newsletter, I develop a theme drawn from various works of art, fiction, poetry, music, film, or philosophy. When appropriate, I locate the theme in my fiction. I hope that by examining my experiences and exploring concepts, our shared understanding nourishes our connection.
