Sunday Monday Tuesday My time living with Julie is soon coming to a close, and while I know that my move in with a friend and fellow grad student will do wonders for my thesis work, one of the many (many!) things I’ll miss about living out here will be our evening walks and camera-grabbing as the sun nears the horizon each night. The weather this May has been weird, but I suppose that’s normal for Montana – if that... Read more

Tuesday: 6.2 milesThursday: 6.4 miSaturday: 7.2 miMonday: 2.4 miTotal: 22.2 milesI was hoping for 25, or perhaps even a full marathon’s worth, 26.2, but the beating that my body sustained on Saturday’s run cut short those ambitions. In truth I think the trail run, with its at times steep inclines and descents was tougher on the body than either of the two half marathons (13.1 mi) that I’ve run. That run, Saturday in Helena, taught me some good lessons though.... Read more

Danny Fisher over at Chaplain Danny has bestowed upon me an “Honest Scrap Award.” The award is described as follows: This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant. This award is about bloggers who post from their heart, who oftentimes put their heart on display as they write from the depths of their soul. Just when I thought my ego could grow no larger, Danny comes along and says... Read more

This morning I got up at the ungodly hour of 6:15am and ran for about an hour, thinking, for some reason (bad mapping last night) that I was only going about 3.6 miles round-trip. Turns out I went 6.4! Above is the course I took, a simple, flat, barely meandering run, similar to the first half of the Missoula Marathon (and half-marathon). The run was in preparation for this weekend’s Prickly Pear 7.2 mile (12k) trail run (map of that... Read more

Since March or so I have been thinking about running this year’s Missoula Marathon (mid-July). This ambition goes back to around 2007, when I ran the Missoula’s first annual 1/2 marathon (photo here with me, medal, epsom salt and bananas). A typical marathon training schedule goes for 18 weeks and has all kinds of rules and stipulations for distances and rest and diet and all that jazz. I’m not sure who actually follows such schedules, but being a lazy, busy... Read more

Part of my MA dissertation some four years back was a defense of Kant as a potential interlocutor for Buddhist ethics in the current age. Kant, I came to discover, is a mysterious figure. First of all, Kant was a systematic thinker. That is, he was concerned not just with one aspect of philosophy or another. He knew that ethics must be grounded in metaphysics, which must be grounded in epistemology, which required intimate knowledge of anthropology, and so on.... Read more

Samuel, aka the Buddhist Okie, posted this interesting set of questions in my recent discussion of Holmes Rolston III: Hey Justin! “Then, importantly, we must go on living this life we’ve created – hoping, helping to bring peace to others. Fighting the forces of greed, hatred, and delusion. Within, and without” I don’t think a blog comment space is probably the appropriate forum for this question. But given the post relating to environmental ethics, and your charge to fight greed,... Read more

A lover of nature’s great vistas and the quest to capture them in full color, contrast, and glory, I was intrigued by the name of this blog: Unphotographable. This is what I found there, posted 4-15-09: This is a picture I did not take of the most optimistic homeless man in America, spare changing at the Fox News-sponsored “Tea Party” in Atlanta on April 15th, rattling his empty cup as hundreds passed-by and grimaced at the sight of him approaching,... Read more

Holmes Rolston III receiving the Templeton Prize in nature and religion with H.R.H. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. (from here) This was the line quoted a couple times last night at a panel at UM discussing the life and philosophy of Holmes Rolston III, “the father of environmental ethics.” Or, as he likes to say now, “the grandfather of environmental ethics.” The quote is a common one in Christianity, shaping both this former Presbyterian minister’s life and those of many... Read more

Life is settling down a bit here in my end of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I’ve moved in with my gf, Julie, and – despite my mess – things are mellow and very fun thus far. I’m still searching for a new bachelor-pad in which to write the great manifesto which shall be my ph.d. thesis. But until that place finds me (or I choose one of the many places I’ve seen recently) I will be happily, and with much... Read more