I’ve been thinking a lot about Burning Man and Black Rock City lately, not just because of the recent news about financial challenges and debates about the event’s management and future, but mainly because this year marks 30 years since I first attended Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert. When I made my first …
Category: Life in general, and perhaps the Pursuit of Happiness
Comments about life, philosophy, etc…
The Road Not Raged: A Reflection on Civility
I went to run an errand at lunchtime a few days ago and had an interesting encounter. I was going to the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore to drop off some donations. It’s about a 10-minute drive. About three blocks from my house, I noticed a brand new purple Subaru ahead of me stopped in …
Hoodies and Potential: From Trayvon to Josh
Sixty-Two and the Cycles of Time (Or, How I’m Still Figuring Things Out) This week marks my 62nd birthday, a milestone that feels both surreal and somehow inevitable. It’s hard to reconcile the number with how I feel—mostly, my knees remind me of the passage of time! But I also recognize that I’ve lived long …
Father’s Day…
I wrote on Father’s Day way back in the last century. It was an interesting time….
Two Pennies
“I woke up this morning thinking of coins…”
Two Divergent Paths
Last November, after 23 years, 8 Months and 26 days (but who’s counting) working for the same company, in the same town, in the same organization, I was laid off from my job as a Premium Corporate Support Manager for a large computer tech company. This situation is not an uncommon occurrence in any industry, …
The Homecoming by William Henry Mackey, Jr.
This is the prologue to the book “Down Home: My Return to the Georgia Backwoods” written by my father early 1970’s. The book is an exploration of the area in rural Georgia that he grew up in and how it changed in the 50 years since he was born there, especially focusing on the history …
289 Steps
I wrote the following the day after my visit to Omaha Beach in Normandy in September, 2013. Sharing it for Memorial Day. 289 Steps. Nothing particularly notable about that. Walking leisurely, it took me a little over 2 minutes to walk those 289 steps. It was not a physically challenging thing to do. Something I …
Jenni, Melise and Jack
February 27th, 2011 In the wake of the deaths of Connor Ausland and Jack Harnsongkram I’ve spent a lot of time recently reflecting on the meaning of life, or, more specifically, the meaning of what we leave behind us when we die. I have some friends who maintain a level and type of faith that leads …
The Sea does not care….
The Sea does not care The Sea does not know The Sea is not angry, nor is it vengeful The Sea expresses neither wrath, nor benevolence in the movement of it’s tides The Sea cannot differentiate between a piece of discarded styrofoam floating upon its surface and the body of a friend taken by its waves The Sea does not care The Sea …