Laurie and St. Valentine In the fall of ’79, on the second or third day of Biodedsign, Laurie came up to me after class and whispered, “When is it OK to hug?” I gave her a puzzled look and asked what she meant. “Well,” she said, “Last year I saw Biodesigners hugging frequently and … [Read more…]
Jared Grummer and Dancing Frogs @ Gillwood’s “And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.” “The Prophet.” Kahlil Gibran One of the neatest aspects of spiritual gifts is that we never know the who, what, when, where, why and how about them. Recently I experienced an … [Read more…]
Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Loren Eiseley “I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Isaac Newton. Darwin discovered a “prettier shell” of an idea that … [Read more…]
Darwin, Lincoln, LBJ and Dr. King Since Darwin published his, “Origin of Species,” we have undergone some astounding socio-cultural evolution. We have grown because of Abraham Lincoln’s bold “Emancipation Proclamation.” We have grown because of LBJ’s “Civil Rights Act” of 1964. And on April 4, 1968 we witnessed the horror of Dr. Martin … [Read more…]
The Hegelian Dialectic actually works. I have been troubled by not being able to understand how Stephen Hawking could arrive at the universe making itself out of nothing, and so I had to refer to, “The Grand Design.” I have to confess, I found much of the book fascinating. I also have no interest in … [Read more…]
A Re-gifted Christmas Miracle I suspect that more often than not, a person’s belief system is not a result of his own thought process. Various isms (including atheism and agnosticism) are often deeply imbedded in personalities and handed down from parents or ethnicity or community ethos. Many of these have lasted thousands of years, … [Read more…]
A Cautionary Cosmic Tale Is it mankind’s destiny to evolve into a godless society? An astronomer climbed Mt. Improbable on a crisp, moonless night. He used a telescopic computer to count the celestial bodies in his 360-degree hemisphere. Meanwhile, one trillion other scientists, droids, or unknowable energy manifestations, also tabulated their respective numbers, many … [Read more…]
Poets and Kings and Sawdust Rings George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright who received a Nobel Price in Literature. Today he is regarded as one of the most important and influential playwrights in history. He was also the founder of the Fabian Society. In his typical satirical manner, he once quipped, “Christianity would … [Read more…]
Christmas at Model Bakery For better or worse, the tradition of exchanging gifts at Christmas time, is rooted in the Biblical account of the Magi presenting gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child. However, from a purely secular (or scientific) perspective, the story is a myth, parable or misguided fabrication … [Read more…]
Three Cups of Tea Throughout the process of writing BOFAW (and Facebook entries) I tried to shine my magical flashlight on the people (especially students) and events that created what became known as Biodesign. It was not a poorly veiled form of self-deprecation, but an honest attempt to show that the millions of variables … [Read more…]