Tag Archive | "culture"
Another road
by Ed’s Apprentice Everybody thinks about his or her purpose in life. I figure going into their twenties most people think that purpose is pretty significant. However, getting out of their twenties — and I’ll be there soon — I think most people are at least beginning to accept that their purpose might have to [...]
Continue reading...Or die trying
Friday, February 11, 2011
I wrote an entire book on the life of the mind, if you can imagine that. A significant portion of the book was dedicated to the importance of a liberal education, and I’ve written about that topic in this space, too: Liberal teaching means putting everything I know, and everything I am, at risk in [...]
Continue reading...Talking about oil in Oil City, USA
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
I presented in Austin, Texas, 9 January 2011 under the title, Durable Living: Preparing for Climate Change and Energy Decline. Free and open to the public, the event was sponsored by Design~Build~Live and Crude Awakening Austin, and attended by about 30 people. I was shooting video of this presentation, but my camera failed 15 minutes [...]
Continue reading...My Dad, in 1984
Thursday, December 30, 2010
by Danny Showalter I remember the presidential election between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. My Pop hated Mondale. That was 1984, and I was seven. I’ll come back to that after a brief digression. I grew up in rural Indiana. Shortly before I was born, my father, my mother, my aunt and my uncle, went [...]
Continue reading...Praying for peace, promoting war
Thursday, December 23, 2010
A Christmas card from one of the in-laws was unintentionally soaked in irony. I’ll skip the rant about celebrating Christ and mass, the two components of Christ’s mass (i.e., Christmas) in which I don’t believe, much less celebrate. And, too, I”ll forgo the equally tempting rant about a religious holiday that promotes conspicuous consumption in [...]
Continue reading...This collapse, my art, and what I think I can see
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
by L.A.W., a well-traveled artist-educator living in Ohio I recently read that Michelangelo stopped making art for two years because the Republic of Florence was under attack and he understood it to be his duty to contribute whole-heartedly to the survival of his country. I don’t flatter myself that I am like Michelangelo when it [...]
Continue reading...We’re toast
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
When people tell me the dire messages about which I write don’t resonate with other people, I struggle with a coherent response. Would you prefer continued overshoot on an overshot planet? Would you prefer we keep heating our overheated home? Would you prefer we ignore the most important issues in the history of our species? [...]
Continue reading...A Parent’s Dilemma: Preparing a Child for an Uncertain Future
Saturday, November 27, 2010
by Jeff Sties When our son Ben was born in 1999, my wife Stacy and I decided that one child was enough. For starters, there was her obvious discomfort during the pregnancy. Financially, we knew that we could not afford to put multiple children through college. Our chosen careers brought in a comfortable income as [...]
Continue reading...A presentation with audio and another about bioenergy
Friday, October 1, 2010
Two presentations follow. The first focuses on the twin sides of the fossil fuel coin and what we can do about it, as presented in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this week. It’s similar to many presentations I’ve given recently and it includes an audio file, so you can follow along with the slides. The second was [...]
Continue reading...Balloon seeks pin
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
I speak openly about myriad ongoing collapses, regardless how others respond. Among the costs: Rumors of my insanity have spread beyond the institution I departed and throughout the nation’s hallowed halls. Apparently I’ve contracted a rare disease, which explains the insanity. I can only hope (i.e., wish) it’s not fatal. Further evidence I’ve lost my [...]
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
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