Focus

It’s 2:30 am on a virtually moonless night. We are roped together and attempting  to summit Mt. Shasta by climbing a steep wall of snow and ice only illuminated by our headlamps. The scene looks surreal but we are totally focused on placing our cramponed feet in the depressions made by the person in front. […]

A Sense of Wonder

Lying under the stars in the Sierra Nevada and having a front seat at the greatest and longest running celestial production, I can’t help but feel a quickening of the pulse, a swelling of the heart and a suspension of breath, the usual accompaniments of a profound sense of wonder. Richard Dawkins has described wonder […]

Shopping as Theater or Grind

I recently watched a film in a movie theater in a ‘transitional’ neighborhood in Oakland and was more than pleasantly surprised on walking through the unimposing entrance to what could have been a very large garage. The scene opened up to a cheerful combination of café, pub and pizza parlor. Orders could be eaten in […]