occasional reflections on culture & politics
As I am sitting in my warm house, I am watching a squirrel eat some of the food I originally put out for the birds. There is not just one squirrel, there are five. Every attempt at “squirrel-proofing” the feeder has failed. They are smart animals. I had to hang up a separate feeder somewhere… Continue reading #200: The Nature Around Us
Queen Elizabeth II died two days ago, and her loss was felt around the world. She has always been committed to her duty to represent the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, transcending that which remained of the Empire into a time of decolonization, new partnerships, a more European Britain, and eventually, sadly, Brexit. She lived… Continue reading #193: De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bene: We Owe Respect to the Dead
I am old. If you don’t believe me, I am going to prove it to you with this text. Correction: I am not that old, mid-40s, but I am old enough to not quite fit in with this world anymore. I am no stranger to computers. While in East Germany, we could not easily get… Continue reading #132: My Tablet Told Me to Try a Bedtime Alarm to Get More Sleep
Most people who live with pets are able to somehow communicate with them. It’s not difficult. They teach you: all you need to do is to recognize that there is a little person in your animal just as much as there is in you. That little person speaks a different language than you, but you… Continue reading #129: Pets Teach Empathy and How to Live
I know, this is probably a very strange question, but I have been pondering on this a while. Are we anthropomorphizing human beings? Typically, those who really care about animals and claim that they are feeling, intelligent beings not so dissimilar from us, are being admonished not to anthropomorphize animals, not to treat them as… Continue reading #115: Are We Anthropomorphizing Human Beings?
It appears that if you feel tired, exhausted, depressed, and have been doing so for months already, you are not alone. The entire world is out of balance. Nothing is normal anymore, no matter how much we may want to pretend it is. Some people are blaming the lockdown for this feeling. We can’t do… Continue reading #86: Nature Is Stronger than Us: The Pandemic, not the Lockdown, Is the Problem
There is this anecdote that on July 4th 1776, King George wrote into his Journal "Nothing is Happening Today." These were the times without instant worldwide communications, and surely, he could not have known what had just happened in the American colonies. And as most such famous quotes go, it very probably is not true,… Continue reading #10: Corona, or, Nothing Important Is Happening Today
Erratic Attempts 