In a recent New York Times article, entitled “Our Dark Century,” Thomas Friedman proposes that the darkness that seems to be descending over the world is not some aberration, but actually a return to the “normal” state of affairs that existed in earlier centuries.  “The 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries,” he writes, “were normal. Big countries like China, Russia and Turkey are ruled by fierce leaders with massive power. That’s normal. Small aristocracies in many nations hog gigantic shares of their nations’ wealth. That’s normal.”

I found this thesis quite striking, even disturbing, although on reflection and from a … Read More

I recently came across this quote from twentieth century author Aldous Huxley in The Week magazine: “I’m afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark, like celery.” I don’t know when in his life Huxley said this; it was probably early in his writing career, since later on he did become quite famous for Brave New World and other writings.   Huxley died in 1963, before computers, before the internet, before all the vast machinery of celebrity that is so much a feature of our current maddening century.  The quote is a fascinating insight into Huxley’s own inner process and … Read More

As I write this, truckers in Canada are still blocking streets in Ottawa; they were blocking the critical Ambassador bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario but that has now been cleared.  By the time this is published the dispute may have been resolved, but I am not as interested in the ostensible reason for the protest—the requirement in Canada that all truckers entering the country be vaccinated against Covid—as in the method of protest, using huge trucks to block the highways. That is rather new, and it is already being imitated in other countries. What struck me about this situation is … Read More

I began studying Zen back in the 60s, in Berkeley, California.  Back then there were only a few of us, meeting in someone’s living room.  Shunryu Suzuki–who later became famous as the founder of Tassajara monastery and the author of the best-selling Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind—sometimes came from San Francisco and joined us for meditation, and then stayed for breakfast.  In those days he he made it a point to visit all the small Zen sitting groups in the area.

One morning he came with his wife, whom we called Okusan—a Japanese word meaning “wife”—and we all sat around a small … Read More

It’s true; our world is fragile as glass in so many ways.  The climate is fragile and we are trampling on its infinite complexity with ignorance and abandon.  Our social order, with its complex web of custom and civil behavior, is fraying; as face to face interaction wanes during Covid, web-fueled impatience and rage is becoming the norm.  And our personal life, formerly organized around stable relationships and daily routines, is upended.  Even our very sense of what is real and true is subject to this fragility. In terms of personal life, I read that the average weight gain during the two years of … Read More

In the movie Gran Turino, the gruff Korean War veteran played by Clint Eastwood is teaching a teenage boy he has befriended how to “talk like a man.” His friend the barber gives the boy an example, “Just got my brakes fixed and the guys really screwed me.”  This sounds like he’s teaching the boy to complain, but actually this is an example of “status talk.”  By complaining about the mechanic, a man signifies that he is above the mechanic, he’s angry at the mechanic—in other words, he elevates his status.

One of my good friends, a professional actor, believes that much … Read More

It’s well known that women on average live longer than men.  The current life expectancy for women in the U.S. is 81, for men it is 76.  Since these are averages of the whole population, that is a huge difference.  Science has identified some commonly accepted factors.  Testosterone, which men have more of, seems to reduce the effectiveness of the immune system as men age.  Men also have on average higher blood pressure than women, although this difference is less after age 60.  Men may be less likely to comply with medical advice—going to regular physical checkups and taking recommended medications.  And then there are lifestyle factors … Read More

My Buddhist teacher Shunryu Suzuki once wrote a calligraphy, in English, that read, “Do not say too late.”  He gave this to Yvonne, one of his main disciples, who had it on the wall in her living room for her whole life.  I saw it there for years whenever I visited her.  I’m not sure why he wrote the calligraphy, or if it had any direct relevance to something that was going on in Yvonne’s life.  Maybe she had told Suzuki about something that she felt was too late to change, and he wrote the scroll in response. But it was such an unusual … Read More

My Buddhist teacher Shunryu Suzuki like to use the phrase “Things as it is.”  Sometimes one of us students would gently correct him, thinking he didn’t understand English grammar, and say, “You know, Suzuki Roshi, in English the correct way to say that is ‘things as they are.” He would thank us and try that out, saying “Things as they are” a few times.  But it was clear this didn’t sound right to him, and soon he was back to saying “Things as it is.”  This may not have been grammatical in English, but to his ear it was correct from the standpoint … Read More

My close friend Peter has a theory about what he calls “gold nugget people.”  These are people of wisdom, people who know things—important things—who live anonymously and invisibly in their communities, known only to those who pay attention and need to know.  They are, Peter says, like gold nuggets you might find glistening in the bottom of a rushing stream—easy to miss unless you know what to look for and where to look. 

Human communities have always had gold nugget people.  Sometimes they have a role as “medicine men,” shamans, or elders; sometimes they just live their lives, watching how others live theirs … Read More