Episode #828 December 14, 2024 Things are not always as they seem. Sometimes the truth is hidden behind the obvious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8hRX5tmq_s The drain plug of my inflatable spa came loose and the water drained out. I don’t remember kicking the drain plug. In fact, I had not been in the spa for days. Did a temperature change cause the plug to loosen? What had happened to cause the drain to become unplugged? The water draining occurred after carpet cleaners came to my house. I don't think they jumped into the spa. What did they do? They drove their...
Episode #827 December 7, 2024 Mr. Quinn rolled his wheelchair into the classroom. He swung it around to face the class with the small squeak of a sliding brody. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm-upHSP9KU “Settle down slackers. Take you seats.” We students scuffled to our desks, put chemistry books down and grumbled under our breaths at our new science teacher. Ed Quinn ran the bent fingers of his right hand through his long balding hair. The act did not change his disheveled appearance. His button down shirt was wrinkled. The 5 o’clock shadow reflected the fluorescent lights with a pepper of grey....
Episode #826 November 30, 2024 Belief in reality is an act of conscious faith. "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." —Napoleon Hill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtSD1r2aYho Belief, faith and delusion are interrelated. The key to Napoleon Hill’s assertion is conception. Belief only requires faith, but can be a delusion, a fool’s reality. Much research and study is required to truly conceive of a reality. We craft reality with the scientific method, critical thinking and scrupulous observation. “Truth or verity is the property of being in accord with fact or reality. In everyday language, it is typically...
Episode #825 November 23, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRIKNINTFls As I stand in the living room of my modest red cabin, the vaulted A-frame ceiling begins to glow with the warm hues of the setting sun. Through the sliding glass doors on the eastern wall are cumulus thunderheads, painted in delicate shades of orange and pink, drifting in a cerulean sky. Bandit, my black-masked white cat, chatters at the house finches flitting past the patio doors. The day's heat has left the air inside the house stuffy and slightly humid, resisting the window cooler's whining fan. I unlock...
Episode #824 November 16, 2024 A proscenium arch serves as a frame which encloses something different on its other side. It can also be a portal to another reality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aktzXX964w In a church the proscenium arch is a threshold between the secular and the sacred. It is a passageway to God. The congregation gathers on the pew side of the arch while recipients of the Eucharist pass through the arch to commune with God. The stage of a theater is often framed with a proscenium arch. On this side is the audience, seated in the normal world. On...
Episode #823 November 9, 2024 The age of 70 is a milestone in our society. It is the age of retirement, voluntary or not. It is also considered an advent to wisdom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs5vUfddkT8 Paula recently turned 70. She met it face on without a hint of slowing down. The day before her birthday she load organized at Skydive Perris. She made 6 skydives mentoring new jumpers into calm and precise formation skydives. One of the jumps was frantic and undisciplined. In her very practical, well learned style Paula debriefed the group. “When you walk you don’t flail your arms...