Religion vs. Reality? I Vote Reality
May 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 8 of 8
April 30, 2013 By 6 Comments
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] The Final Doorway The payoff of going through the transition from the House of the Tribe to the House of Humanity is very large. If we can make it across the painful threshold from our small but formerly comfortable dwelling space into this new and grander place, we gain an entire fascinating WORLD of people. People to learn from, to visit, to photograph, to love, to sing to, to listen to, to argue with, to trade with, even to combine … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 7 of 8
April 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] The Houses of Man (cont.) As you’ve probably already figured out, there are other steps in this bigger-house progression. At some point we discover the door to yet another Outside, and find that our original family home is only a small part of a bigger place – our neighborhood or culture. For want of a better name, call this dwelling place the House of the Tribe. Again, there’s an uncomfortable period of adaptation in settling-in to … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 6 of 8
April 30, 2013 By 3 Comments
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] The Houses of Man Picture a house. Not a real house, but a kind of metaphor-house, the place where your inner life takes place. The rooms inside are furnished with your everyday thoughts, feelings and understandings. In this particular house, there are secret doors. People can tell you that they’re there, but you never believe them, because you can’t see the doors, or any hint of them. Picture every little boy who has stoutly declared … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 5 of 8
April 27, 2013 By 2 Comments
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] Molly (cont.) This kind of thought wasn’t completely new for me – I confess I’d dwelt many times on the fortunes of other men, wistful and envious of the assets they enjoyed. “What would it be like to be him?” I had asked myself, him way up there with all that money, with a daddy who provides private airplanes and the family’s own airport, with new trucks and horses and jet skis and scuba diving lessons there for the … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 4 of 8
April 26, 2013 By 3 Comments
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] Molly For eight years in my 20s and 30s, I was a draft horse teamster at a resort-town ranch, driving a two-up hitch of massive blond Belgians or coal-black Percherons, on a huge hay wagon for mid-summer meadow rides, or on big sleighs that would glide over the high-mountain snow on moonlit winter nights. Molly was one of the ranch dogs. She was no particular color – a little black, a little brown, a little gray, all mixed up in a dark … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 3 of 8
April 25, 2013 By 1 Comment
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] Cutter After seasons of proving myself at many of the other chores of branding, on this day, I’m in charge of castrations. After the calf slides to a stop and both the heel rope and the top man are firmly in place, I step forward and kneel down by the calf’s belly. I stretch out the scrotum and slice across the lower third of it with a sharp knife. The testicles usually pop out on their own, but sometimes you have to fish around, pressing … [Read more...]
Beta Culture: Earthman’s Journey – Part 2 of 8
April 24, 2013 By 4 Comments
[ Part 1 — 2 — 3— 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ] Cowboyin' The early end of the beef industry involves a lot of labor at identifying and altering young bovines from their original, mint-condition wholeness to something more in line with human designs, as they make their first transition from free beasties to hamburger-on-the-hoof. The work can be done in sheer industrial efficiency, with metal chutes and shock prods and unconcerned hourly workers, or it can be done by working cowboys, in … [Read more...]
Disturbing Early Morning Thought
March 3, 2013 By 12 Comments
If you lived with someone who had done EVERYTHING, say a superstar father or mother – a famous author or adventurer or actress or athlete – how would you gain a sense of your own worth and value? How hard would it be to chart your own life course? To find and develop your own talents? Would you live your whole life feeling inferior and lesser? Knowing that you could never do or be anything unique, that you would always live in the giant shadow of their spectacular accomplishments, that by … [Read more...]
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