Monthly Archives: March 2009

History as the rigorous and systematic study most of us Westerners know and either love or loathe began in ancient Greece, with Herodotus and Thucydides.    Those early historians celebrated the great deeds of men (literally men) and their famous chronicles of war and triumph are touchstones in the tradition of Western Humanism.  In the pastContinue reading “Neolithic Wisdom”

Many years ago when I first started to meditate and otherwise seek the deeper meaning of my life, I asked a wise old man what I could trust to guide me,  since many of my beliefs had turned out to be nothing but blind biases–and since reality was clearly so much strange and subject toContinue reading “The Circle”

For weeks in mid February, I thought of my friend Leila Hadley Luce.   One day, for example, I was driving on the Taconic Parkway, noting that the sky was staying lighter longer andwhat a relief having such a long cold winter.   In rushed an impression of Leila.  I remembered sitting across the table fromContinue reading “Leila Hadley Luce”