Well well, another year gone by. I’m not sure if this is an excuse or a reason, but I just didn’t feel like I had a whole lot to say.
That’s changed.
I just returned from a trip that was part reconnaissance, part bucket list and part classic road trip fodder. My family spent nearly three weeks in Amsterdam and parts of western Germany.
Since it’s now a new year — L’Shanah Tovah, by the way — I thought I’d take some time (see what I did there?) to ponder the enormity of time, and what science, faith and Spinoza all have to say about it.
You are what you eat — it’s got some interesting implications. Especially if you think about the shortness of life compared to the permanency of matter.
If you look at things a certain way, there’s a lot of agreement between Spinoza’s ideas, those of the church — and even modern-day science.
I may have been away from the blog, but I was still working on my manuscript, researching the next book, reading up on topics related to its themes and … well … thinking about stuff.
Silly me.
At this point in the modern plague, probably everyone is familiar with the old-timey plague doctor uniform. But why was it so macabre? For a bad reason, it turns out, but with good consequences.
Today is Spinoza’s 388th Birthday, and in his honor, I’m sharing one of my favorite anecdotes of his life – that time when he almost got torn to bits defending those two other guys who got torn to bits.
Public testimony submitted to the Michigan Board of Canvassers, Nov. 23, 2020:
“Your vote is sacred.”
From the time an American is a child, we are told this untold times. Our parents instill these words in us when they take us to accompany them to the voting booth. Our teachers tell us this when we learn how our government is work — or is meant to work — in our school rooms. Candidates promise us this when they come begging for those votes. I heard countless lawmakers — Democrat and Republican — utter these words on the House floor when I worked for the Michigan House of Representative for seven years.
Leaving Trump is like leaving an abusive partner – the only way to do it is to finally do it. There’s no guarantee once you do that everything will end up as you hoped. But I can promise you this: until you leave, no good change will come.
Amsterdamned 