It happened one hundred and one years ago today. In the midst of the carnage. In the midst of the horror. Something happened. It was short lived. But. It still enters human dreams… Read more

For those who start to notice how weird the weird can be, this is the season… Read more

I have no comment to go with this. Read more

It was on this day in 1853 that Saradamani Mukhopadhyay was born. Better known as Sarada Devi, she was the nineteenth century Hindu saint Ramakrishna’s wife, and is generally known as the Holy Mother within the Vedanta community. In the years following Ramakrishna’s death she proved to be the heartbeat of the forming community. Swami Vivekananda declared he would never had made his famous visit to the World Parliament of Religions without her explicit blessing. Her devotion to the movement... Read more

This Sunday afternoon the leadership council (board) of Boundless Way Zen voted to accept the application of the Blue Cliff Zen Sangha as a member group. I am very excited that Boundless Way will now have an official community on the West Coast. We represent an emerging Western style of Zen firmly rooted in the received traditions with lineage roots in both Japan and Korea and strive to be grateful for and authentic to the essentials of the tradition while... Read more

It was on this day in 1946 that Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern made it to the big screen. It was an expensive film and opened against a lot of competition, and did not do well. But over the years in part thanks to endless Christmas season reruns on television gradually worked its way into the American heart. Even at the time it opened, however, while not doing much... Read more

Jan & I both supported Robert Reich’s run for governor of Massachusetts, and spoke a little with him during a fund raising dinner held by a friend. Good man. Here he gives a little advice for dealing with relatives during your big holiday family gathering… Read more

’twas on this day in 1918 that Henry Roeland Byrd was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana. We know him as Professor Longhair. Read more

Betty Grable was born on this day in 1916. Ms Grable was an actress, dancer, and singer, working mostly as a contract player for 20th Century Fox during the nineteen forties & fifties. Oh, yes, and she was the most popular pin-up girl of the Second World War. During those hard years her “million dollar legs” featured prominently in many a young soldier and sailor’s fantasy life. Read more

On the 17th of December, in 1903, Orville Wright flew one hundred, twenty feet in his heavier than air flying machine. Later that day his brother Wilbur became the second to fly successfully, setting the next world record for controlled flight at eight hundred, fifty two feet. Humans have dreamt of flying probably since there have been humans. The Hebrew scriptures describe Ezekiel’s flying chariot, the near east has its tales of flying carpets, and probably everyone in our culture... Read more