self knowledge

You began to suspect that the self was just a thought experiment.

food dilemma

To clean one’s plate so as not to waste food; or to leave a few morsels as testament to our excess.

word origin

A word’s ontology is its meaning.

dialed in

Not a dialectic but a dial that can be turned/tuned to many viewpoints. There is almost no viewpoint that can’t be turned one-hundred and eighty degrees and argued with equal vigor and result from its opposite side. But it’s probably truer to say, though certain binary concepts and themes are often convenient, that every argument is but a point on a dial where the needle can be turned to register its value.

dispersive mind

I know quite a little about many things.

relative value

At expiration, the supermarket marks down by half the inexpensive bread, but the nicer loaves only by a third.

new word order

The little koan that could (change the world).

logos logged off

With nothing to show since the Bible, we can we assume God is afflicted with writer’s block.

extinction threat

It shouldn’t be a surprise that stupid people fear the theory of evolution.

ugly under glass

A butterfly is just a specimen under glass. A butterfly is only beautiful in flight or, however briefly, alighted upon a leaf or flower.

face forward

Don’t turn your head—there is nothing behind you that is not dead.

student teacher

There has never been a good teacher who doesn’t still consider him/herself a student.

context of luck

Circumstance is the stage upon which chance plays its part. You can’t throw a seven holding one die.

act and perspective

When a giant goes to kill a fly he uses a chair or floorlamp for a flyswatter—some furniture is bound to get broken.

in retrospect

Many of the paintings now thought of as masterpieces were the B-movies of their day.

first of last things

The first thing we must realize is that our ability to die is a privilege and not a curse.

juggernaut structure

Religion is a superstition with a superstructure.

as one miscast

The catalogue they sent me was so horrid I felt insulted just receiving it. What personal misstep has thrown me into this milieu?

roll-a-bye-baby

If ever life drives you back into a fetal ball, don’t forget in that position it’s easy to roll.

first things

For a starting point, in fact a star, can we agree on the sun as being primary and important?

incomparable

America will always be a special case.

dietary concern

He wondered if wine counted as a fruit in one’s diet?

lack of fidelity

They listened to Billie Holiday recordings on their Bang & Olufsen sound system…they didn’t get it, they never would.

simple creature

Oh my heart, be a sponge that absorbs this world.

strategy ossifying

Strategy is only alive while in action. As soon as it accomplishes its mission it risks becoming structure.

trickle down or full circle

Tax money comes into the government and gets distributed and paid out almost as fast as it was collected, and tax dollars spent go directly into the private sector, to the benefit of those who own businesses or who invest in businesses.

just one drop

Sometimes all it takes is that first felt drop of rain to bring me back to life.

on the day after

After the disaster one finds two kinds of people: those who hide, horde, hunker down and try to defend themselves, and those who walk abroad and begin to rebuild.

in a better world

The liquor stores should sell milk and bread. So a person with a family could stop once instead of twice.

you're welcome to it

As bad as we are to one another as fellow human inhabitants of this world and the more we degrade the planet that sustains us, the more we believe, if our movies are any gauge, that aliens want to take it all from us. To echo the old comic’s gag line “Take my earth, please.”

because we always did it that way

Tradition is cultural tyranny.

bigger than that

A mountain cannot be contained in one mind.

heaven for rent

Tried to buy, but denied, a timeshare in heaven.

professed universe

He was a full professor at the university of himself.

invisible me

Incognito ergo sum.

poor pursuit

The kind of wealth that has not object other than acquiring objects.

peer and me

I would happily submit my article to peer review, but I’m confident you will be unable to find one.

all about me

Admiring yourself until you become mired in the mirror.

part failure

No economic or political system yet devised has been able to transcend the common abuses caused by human avarice and self-interest. The one moving part you can count on to fail is the human being.

desk job

Literature is the history of people at desks explaining what living is like.