Autobiographical

What Am I Doing?

Chapter 56’s view that one who speaks does not know should logically include writing and thinking as well. After all, speaking, thinking and writing are all interconnected, which suggests that I don’t know what I’m talking about! So what the heck am I doing here? Why do I think and write anyway? I was born […]

I understand, but do I know?

What is the difference between understanding and knowing? Perhaps chapter 70 alludes to this… My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice. Our cleverness at understanding far exceeds our ability to know intuitively what we […]

The Future is Now!

About ten years ago, humanity’s plausible future became increasingly obvious to me. I saw our advancing technology leading toward a time of plunging human population to a point where, for example, governments would support citizens during their parenting years. Now, when I travel on freeways, I eerily see a time when they will be half-empty […]

Innately Ethical

Chapter 38’s A man of the highest virtue does not keep to virtue and that is why he has virtue served as a model for raising my sons. Yet, given their Taoist upbringing, it is odd to see how rigidly law abiding they are at times. For example, we headed down the street to order […]

Suicide Just Doesn’t Work

I was one troubled teenager for a time. I’d go off to the mountains for some peace and solitude. I wasn’t very concerned with my safety; life didn’t seem to offer much advantage over death. One year I climbed Finger Rock without ropes. Going up was easy; going down was terrifying. Was this a latent […]

The Theory of God

We can prove something exists by evidence of its existence. Similarly, we can’t prove something doesn’t exist through a lack of evidence. So, what evidence exists supporting the existence of God? That depends upon what you believe qualifies as evidence I imagine. Oddly, for a believer, belief itself appears to qualify as evidence. This kind […]

Into the Jungle?

While working in Australia in the early 60’s, I met folks who intrigued me with their stories of traveling over land through India and Southeast Asia. Instead of returning to USA as planned, I decided to travel to Europe overland through Asia. Lack of funds meant hitchhiking a lot, and this felt weird considering I’d […]

It was a dark and stormy night…

Soon after hitchhiking to Vietnam from Cambodia, some journalist in Saigon invited me to stay with them. They told me that if I got a press pass from the USIA (United States Information Agency), I could hop rides on military flights. Fortunately, I didn’t have to be a journalist; I just had to say I […]

The best tao? (road, way, principle, speak, think)

Waking up following a pleasant afternoon’s nap, I found myself reflecting on the best way to approach life. By “way” I mean tao, and tao (道 dào) translates to road, way, principle; speak; think. Why do we have endless debates over the way to approach life, what to do and how to do it? This […]

Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink

A dipole is a term in physics that refers to a pair of separated electric charges or magnetic poles, of equal magnitude but of opposite polarity, i.e., negative (–) vs. positive (+) or N. vs. S. Life has adopted this natural dynamic to perceive its surroundings in a way that promotes survival in a competitive […]

Peaches and Pleasure

After living years of hand-to-mouth existence in the developing countries around the world I settled down in Japan for an extended period. My hand to mouth living habits slowly waned as I began to enjoy the comforts of wealthier circumstances. For example, I began to treat myself to a weekly can of peaches. This was utterly […]

The Cost of Compassion

I was hitchhiking through West Africa with my future, now ex, wife, when I came down with hepatitis. That knocked the wind out of my sails enough to return to California to see my folks, after seven years abroad. Happily, I recovered within a few months, but sadly, my girl friend and I broke up […]