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Wanted: Lessons in Strategic Thinking

I worked for a weekly arts and entertainment magazine in Arizona some years back. We’d have these periodic brainstorming sessions to figure out what the cover story would be in each upcoming issue. Anytime an urgent current event came up, we might pop that on the cover, but usually we could plan things out for weeks or months. The advertising sales staff needed to know so they could target particular advertisers for ad buys.

So: One week, the local train museum. The following week, local musicians. The week after that, Navajo artists, or people who take their dogs to work, or … could be anything arts- or entertainment-related. Continue reading “Wanted: Lessons in Strategic Thinking”

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First Person Revolutionary — Part 4

[ First read Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 ]

All the civilizations I ever heard of had this in common: Somewhere right near each one’s heart was religion.

It seems impossible to get away from. And yet it shouldn’t be. After all, it’s never been true that religion is ALL people do.

And it’s not as if religion is food, or water, or air. It’s just this … idea. Hideously embroidered, massively wrapped in confusing, fanciful language, aggressively forced upon people in their vulnerable years and moments … but still just an idea. If it’s possible for one person to be free of it, it’s possible for anyone – maybe even a majority of us – to be free of it. And yet, it seems, we’ve never really tried.

This may be the moment in which that begins to change. This is the “maybe” revolution I spoke of in Part 1. Continue reading “First Person Revolutionary — Part 4”

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Thoughts On My Upcoming 60th (!) Birthday

Okay, fuck it. I’ve decided to celebrate.

To explain why I actually had to decide that: I had a thing happen a few weeks back. Was at a dinner party and a close friend happened to mention the date of my birth right out in public. I was peeved at him for several minutes.

For years now, I haven’t liked people knowing my birthday.

I’ll tell you why. It’s a glitch left over from childhood, but apparently I’m still carrying it around. (I’ve just apologized to my good friend, who puts up with my countless idiotic quirks without complaint.) Continue reading “Thoughts On My Upcoming 60th (!) Birthday”

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First Person Revolutionary — Part 3

[ Read Part 1 and Part 2 ]

The fatal flaw of atheism? Actually, it’s a challenge atheism shares with religion. The difference between the two is that religion has found a solution.

So let’s talk about religion:

The weedy form of religion, superstition, arises automatically in each mind all on its own, simply by virtue of our need to create private theories – often wildly personified due to our ability to detect “person-ness” in everything from smiley faces to wind in the trees – about how the world around us works. But the fully-developed form of religion, that complex mess represented by, for instance, the Catholic Church … Continue reading “First Person Revolutionary — Part 3”

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First Person Revolutionary — Part 2

[ Read Part 1 first. ]

Atheism (more broadly, freethought) isn’t new, of course. Just in this country alone, it’s as old as Thomas Paine (although Paine was a deist, he was widely accused of being an atheist, and I’m confident he would’ve been one of us if he lived in a society in which it was possible to actually think about such things), and has had its bright sparks all along the way, right up to Carl Sagan, who published The Demon Haunted World only 15 years ago. Continue reading “First Person Revolutionary — Part 2”

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No, I’m Not At WKRP in Cincinnati

Baby, if you’ve ever wondered,
Wondered whatever became of me,
I’m living on the air in Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, WKRP.

Apologies if you’ve been expecting the second part of First Person Revolutionary, or wondering where I’ve been.

Haven’t been feeling my best lately. My doctor has informed me I need to have a sort-0f-minor, sort-of-major surgery. I have a consultation coming up with the prospective surgeon next week — at which meeting I’m assuming we’ll set a date for the cutting.

Argh. That gall bladder and I have been friends for close to 60 years.

Back soon, I expect.