The Narrative Image

“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy." - Some old guy with all the best words   Male blue-footed booby assuming display posture . Blue-footed-booby-doing-mating-display portion of photo (lower half) Credit: Dawn Cerrone. Diving-blue-footed-booby-portion of photo (upper half) Credit: Scott Dietz.     Human male assuming display posture   (Picture posted on MadSci Network – not attributed) That reminds me. Sgt. Rock asked me about my trip to the Galapagos.  With a perplexed forehead he said, “Why did you go to the Galapagos?” which to my ear included the subtext, “…when you could have laid back in St. Martin, sippin’ gin and juice?” (Editor’s note: After some reflection, it should be noted that the phrase, ‘sippin’ gin and juice’ would be more characteristic of something Kip might say.) I suppose I could have explained how a tropical paradise holds reduced appeal for old fat men who haven’t come to terms with their di...

“These people have learned not from books, but in the fields, in the wood, on the river bank. Their teachers have been the birds themselves, when they sang to them, the sun when it left a glow of crimson behind it at setting, the very trees, and wild herbs.”  - Anton Chekhov, “A Day in the Country”     “We are tossed about by external causes in many ways, and like waves driven by contrary winds, we waver and are unconscious of the issue and our fate.' We think we are most ourselves when we are most passionate, whereas it is then we are most passive, caught in some ancestral torrent of impulse or feeling, and swept on to a precipitate reaction which meets only part of the situation because without thought only part of a situation can be perceived.” - Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy     “Thanks, Scott, for your comments. I am grateful. Very simply, we can encounter God without even reading the Bible. Aquinas says if you want to know something about God, t...