Category Archives: Philosophy

House Arrest 17 (Ottava Rima)

Posted on April 3, 2020 by sputterpub

It’s hard to be a fan of bureaucrats – we’ve made them rigid figures, comically. But now they’re stand-up heroes, on the mats of surreal contests, speaking honesty to power. Clerks and agents in white hats are damming up the … Continue reading →

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Committee for Unintended Consequences

Posted on April 3, 2020 by sputterpub

It’s obvious our species has evolved through paths of unintended consequence. We own a history of having solved some problems, met some challenges with sense, but then results go otherwise than planned. The car that moves us far: extinguished birds … Continue reading →

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House Arrest 13 (Ode Perverse)

Posted on March 30, 2020 by sputterpub

I check the weather forecast every day (a walker wants to know what gear to wear), and since the autumn fires, it’s my way to note pollution levels in the air. What I assumed was excellent was not; most midday … Continue reading →

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House Arrest 12 (Rondine)

Posted on March 29, 2020 by sputterpub

We’re not dead yet, although we weren’t wise. We made our cities grow beyond control, created business body with no soul, threw airplanes packing virus in our skies. The pessimists exhibit no surprise; the cheerful try yet sighing to console … Continue reading →

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Silver Lining Syndrome

Posted on March 25, 2020 by sputterpub

Just because you find a good in calamity doesn’t make a plan

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House Arrest 3 (Civilization)

Posted on March 20, 2020 by sputterpub

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that spreading illness is the biggest threat to us. Creating cities any size repressed the wise and let our breed forget direction, stars, and close geography, the good and bad of plants, the … Continue reading →

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Will to Live?

Posted on March 13, 2020 by sputterpub

“You never know,” my brother said to us at least a dozen times. “Folks everywhere assert they’d die without a lot of fuss, preferring end instead of endless care, eschewing tubes and dreading loss of mind, but something kicks in … Continue reading →

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Unraised

Posted on March 6, 2020 by sputterpub

Nostalgia’s mostly dangerous and bent, infecting memory with fantasy, and modifying fact until what’s meant as scarlet takes on tones of burgundy. So childhood’s remembered as a state that was or should have been replete with glee, and parents subsidize; … Continue reading →

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The Other Explanation

Posted on February 21, 2020 by sputterpub

Debate Club taught me more than how to speak. I learned to argue points I don’t approve. I got by doing what I didn’t seek: the insight into how ideas can move opponents, for as soon as I’d defend them, … Continue reading →

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Just Two

Posted on February 14, 2020 by sputterpub

I think I always had a closest friend (surveying back to 1955), but I don’t take to groups. I comprehend plurality – communities can thrive – but I don’t ever flourish in a crowd. I find the girls too shrill, … Continue reading →

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