Mencius

Mencius identifies three types of people: 1) those who seek out the unusual and live for fame and posterity, 2) those who want to live with integrity but who gi...

Moments

Posture, the angle of light, intermittent shadows from a block of wall or a window, a redolent scent, an abrupt sound, a profound relaxation and lack of anticip...

Weeds

A weed is a plant that is not wanted, as gardeners say. But weeds tell gardeners a great deal about the condition of the soil, and a bed of “weeds” ...

Justice II

Balancing an offense to the good cannot be achieved by human contrivance because offense itself is a human contrivance. We “take” offense. We “...

Justice I

What is the difference between justice and vengeance? Society goes round in circles trying to distinguish the two because both justice and vengeance presume a h...

Weather

How often do we hear the weather spoken of not merely anthropomorphically but even in moral terms! There is “good” and “bad” weather, of...

Simplicity II

Attempts at simplicity are rejections of culture. They are more subversive than words. To the ancient hermits, voluntary simplicity could not be pursued in the ...

Simplicity

Voluntary simplicity implies that we choose to give up consuming so much and possessing so much. Of course we never really possess or consume anything: we occup...

“Roadkill”

As urban and suburban boundaries expand and destroy habitat, more and more animals are killed by motorists. There is a special anguish to this form of death bec...