Essays by Larry Barnett
Trapped as we are in the Realm of Desire, we always want something. I’m reminded of a scene from the movie “Groundhog Day.”
Phil Connor, played by Bill Murray, is stuck repeating Groundhog Day, seemingly for eternity. Initially he wants the day to end, but even his suicide attempts do not break the repetitive… Read the rest
Every year around the holidays my father received a delivery of liquor. The foyer of the house would suddenly be filled with a dozen cardboard boxes and an afternoon was spent unpacking them and putting bottles of booze in The Liquor Closet.
The Liquor Closet was just off the foyer, next to a coat closet… Read the rest
All and everything in the universe is moving. Matter, sub-atomic particles, energy and even ideas are on a 4.5 billion year trajectory, and it’s all happening at once.
And yet, borrowing from Physicist Richard Feynman’s ideas, each “object” has its own “world line,” a trajectory through spacetime… Read the rest
Small towns in California are an endangered species. The combination of expensive state and federal mandates and regulations, rising costs of government, internet-based consumer spending, and limited revenue opportunities poses an almost insurmountable obstacle to survival.
It was not always… Read the rest
In many respects modern life in America has never been better. From healthcare to the economy, technological innovation like smart phones and handy gadgets of all kinds, people enjoy conveniences and opportunities unimaginable 25 years ago. And yet, many people are angry.
Civilization has always… Read the rest
Emotions are contagious. If you’ve ever been to a theatre to watch a comedian perform his schtick and found yourself guffawing along with the rest of the crowd, you’ve experienced the power of psychological mirroring.
People are social animals, and elements of our behavior – while acted out … Read the rest
Life appears purposeful and growth to be an imperative of life itself. Even a single-celled amoeba must grow large enough before it divides in two. Solar energy constantly bathes our planet, stimulating an over-abundance of growth and what often seems to us as great excess: 300-ft. tall Sequoia trees,… Read the rest
Without doubt, the state of Arizona features some of the most spectacular landscapes in America, mind-boggling sandstone canyons sculpted by millions of years of wind and water and vast moonscape-like deserts which challenge life entirely. My wife and I are currently traversing such areas, and … Read the rest
“If the strong person exercises all his rights to oppress and pillage the weak, he is only doing the most natural thing in the world.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
When we observe the imperatives of nature, it might appear that might makes right. With relatively few exceptions – hyenas, some species … Read the rest
Humanity’s place in nature is terrifying. Fires, floods, landslides, predatory animals, starvation, poisoned water, infection, plague; the list of depredations goes on. Were it not for each other we’d have never survived; alone we are weak and vulnerable.
Some animals are solitary, but human beings… Read the rest
Looking ahead to the future has never been easy. One transformational wave after another has swamped humanity in its wake. The control of fire was perhaps the first such event, followed by flint arrowheads, bows, metallurgy, the wheel, gunpowder and the internal combustion engine. One transformation… Read the rest
A central Buddhist teaching is that being human means living in the realms of desire, and that desire and what flows from it – attachment, craving, grasping, defending, protecting – produces suffering. Sounds reasonable, and from what I can tell, is largely inescapable. As rock n’ roller… Read the rest
Animals are alive; it’s so obvious as to be a tautology. Not all animals, however, are aware of being alive. As far as we can tell so far, human beings are the only ones.
Opinion about awareness, and even more precisely reason, has varied. The designation of animal behavior as the use of reason actually … Read the rest
Our present human condition embodies an antagonism towards nature, one that explains the heights of our creative intelligence, the depths of our self-destructiveness, and how they have become one. Although of nature, humanity relentlessly seeks to master it, and in doing so prompts its own demise.… Read the rest
People are great storytellers. Whether to make sense of a mysterious world beyond our control, to gain influence or power over others, or simply for the playful purposes of entertainment, the tales we spin have created a human reality quite distinct from that of the natural world. Buddhists call it … Read the rest
The past 500 years of social change can be summarized in one word: emancipation. Despite the repeated pendulum swings of permissive and repressive governments, religions, and politics, the overall trajectory of history, in particular western history, includes greater freedom for more people,… Read the rest
When I hear a developer say how much they love Sonoma, it makes me cringe. I’ve lived here long enough to have seen and heard it all before; what such big talkers often mean by loving Sonoma is craving to possess it.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel tremendous affection for our community. I never say I love Sonoma,… Read the rest
The cultural and political forces at play in America right now, the permissive left and the repressive right, present two sides of a centuries-long struggle within western culture: Enlightenment vs. Counter-Enlightenment.
When we speak of The Enlightenment, we are invoking the philosophy of the… Read the rest
My neighbor has a canoe on the roof of his extended cab truck. He’s about to go camping at a lake near Truckee. I like canoeing, and his wooden canoe reminds me of summer at Camp Androscoggin in Maine, where at age eleven I earned a birchwood plaque for “Most Improved in Canoeing.”
Sometimes the honors we … Read the rest
People are talking about how polarized public opinion is right now, politically and socially. The widespread assumption is that a narrow slice of undecideds sits in the middle and that everyone else is rigidly fixed in their opinions; hence, all arguments fail.
Ever since the dawn of The Age of Reason,… Read the rest