Searching for contentment
In the fragrance of freshly worked wood⩘
The soft glow cast by shoji lamps⩘
The inspiration of good reads⩘
My heart is with the people of Ukraine
#StandWithUkraine
My contemplations about Ukraine⩘
Broken heart: Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank, Israel⩘
Abolish ICE! Restore Sanity!
"When a pattern of human rights violations is so undeniably occurring and completely embedded within an institution, for decades, and with pervasive impunity, the only solution is to start over.… It has become clear that no amount of defunding, training or disciplinary measures will be enough. The extent and scale of the abuses and failures we documented lead to only one possible road to justice: ICE must be abolished."
– Opinion: It's time to abolish ICE⩘ by Amy Fischer, director of refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA, The Guardian, Oct 5, 2026.
More: Abolish ICE!
Living in the Rockies
Autumn is here. The leaves are changing colors and dropping. The temperature is finally cooling down. I love this time of year. While I miss the beautiful green crowns of the trees after the leaves have fallen, I also appreciate that I can see vistas that were once a bit obscured by the leaves. This is a favorite bluff along the way of my daily walk that I can now see clearly. I love the gentle colors of its rock face and the contrasting deep greens of the Ponderosa trees on its crown. I also appreciated the gentle blue sky above with its wispy waves of clouds.
Larger version of this photo⩘
More recent photos⩘
Contemplating
Fighting for a more compassionate world
I came across a wonderful website this morning: American Humanist Association⩘ , which has the byline "Fighting for a More Compassionate World". I found it after seeing a Mastodon post by Tom's Hardware⩘ about a "research administrator at the University of Kentucky [who] was granted a Title VII exemption, allowing them to not use AI tools as it goes against their moral beliefs", which are based in humanism.
The referenced Tom's Hardware article⩘ explains further:
David Durman, a research administrator at the University of Kentucky (UK), has successfully argued that using AI violates his beliefs as a humanist and has received Title VII religious accommodation from university officials not to use the technology. According to the Religion News Service (RNS), Durman believes in "the human part of life," which includes making his own decisions. However, he says that when the UK asked its employees to use AI, he felt that doing so would mean outsourcing his thinking to tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, thus violating his deeply held beliefs.
"The process and work involved in thinking through situations, through my work, through my ethics, through the way I handle other people, is a key component in being able to develop myself as a moral person," Durman told RNS in an interview. "And offloading that labor, regardless of whether it's taxing or not, is undercutting my ability to be a moral actor." Because of this, the research administrator was granted a Title VII exemption under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. While humanism is often a non-religious philosophy or a worldview, federal courts have ruled that it qualifies as a religion.
Bravo!
The American Humanist website explains what humanism is (and isn't):
Humanism is a movement for change grounded in reason, compassion & shared humanity.
Humanism is a progressive, non-theistic belief system that says we can all live good, meaningful lives if we focus on making things better in the here and now.
At the heart of Humanism is a powerful conviction: every human being has inherent worth and dignity. Humanists believe that our highest responsibility is to each other, and that we have a duty to do right in this one life – not because we expect recognition, but because we have the power to create a better world through our actions.
Humanism has been a natural home for atheists, agnostics, the non-religious, skeptics, and people questioning their relationship to dogma and authority. But Humanism doesn't seek to oppose or end organized religion – we're here to create a compassionate society that works for everyone, regardless of their beliefs.
They further explore humanist values in ten key areas⩘ :
- Altruism
- Critical thinking
- Empathy
- Environmentalism
- Ethical development
- Global awareness
- Humility
- Peace & social justice
- Responsibility
- Service & participation
Aligns so beautifully with my personal values.
More recent contemplations⩘
Reading
Maria Ressa, The Fight Back: A Citizen's Guide to Standing Up to Dictators
Beautifully narrated by the author
Wow. I greatly respect and admire Maria Ressa, and this, her most recent book, strengthens those feelings. I'll be gifting copies of this book to friends.
Courage isn't the absence of fear; it's the decision that something matters more. It's the first step in the fight back.
The book covers many aspects of the fight from understanding the battlefield, to protecting ourselves, our communities, journalism, and our institutions, to defending against the negative effects of big tech, social media companies, and AI.
We are living through an information Armageddon. Your chatbot is a probabilistic machine; it pulls from the data that trained it. It doesn't understand our humanity. It can't comprehend our search for purpose and meaning. In fact, it may destroy it.
In the concluding chapter, "The World We Want", she shares an inspiring exploration of the steps we can take to create the world we want.
This is the chapter I live day by day, the one I have been writing in my head since the Nobel lecture in Oslo in December 2021.
"So close your eyes.
Imagine the world as it should be.
A world of peace, trust, and empathy,
bringing out the best that we can be.
Now, let's go and make that happen.
Let's hold the line. Together."Now open your eyes.
Hold your line.
Begin.
Maria Ressa is a Filipino and American journalist and the winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her "efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace".
Harper, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Harper, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .
See also: How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa⩘ .
Related: 'A global political awakening': how gen Z protests are sweeping the world⩘ by Ashifa Kassam and Lex McMenamin, The Guardian, Nov 9, 2026.
"Gen Z is rising," said Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard Kennedy School. "It is abundantly clear that a significant proportion of gen Z is tired of sitting on the sidelines while their political systems fail them."
Researchers have documented at least 25 protests around the world in which this age group – roughly those between the ages of 14 and 29 – has played a role.
From Bangladesh to Belgium and Italy to India, it seems gen Z, who account for about a third of the world's population, have found their voice. "Gen Z may be experiencing a global political awakening," Chenoweth wrote in a recent essay.
Their reasons for taking to the streets have varied widely, from protesting against corruption and an unequal playing field to calling for more investment in education, affordable housing and action on the climate crisis.…
As Chenoweth of the Harvard Kennedy School noted, the wave of recent youth-led protests may mark the beginning of a "profound generational transformation in world affairs" – one that could be capable of countering the global trend of democratic backsliding.
More recent reading⩘
Fighting for American democracy
We must use our time and our space
on this little planet that we call Earth
to make a lasting contribution,
to leave it a little better than we found it,
and now that need is greater than ever before.– John Lewis, 2020
———
"If to belive in freedom and equality is to be a radical,
then I am a radical."– Patsy Mink, the first Woman of Color and first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, served in the United States House of Representatives from the state of Hawaii, 1965 - 1977 and 1990 - 2002.
———
"So what do those of us who love American democracy do? Make noise. Take up oxygen…. Defend what is great about this nation: its people, and their willingness to innovate, work, and protect each other. Making America great has never been about hatred or destruction or the aggregation of wealth at the very top; it has always been about building good lives for everyone on the principle of self-determination. While we have never been perfect, our democracy is a far better option than the autocratic oligarchy Trump is imposing on us."…
I write these letters because I love America. I am staunchly committed to the principle of human self-determination for people of all races, genders, abilities, and ethnicities: the idea that we all have the right to work to become whatever we wish. I believe that American democracy has the potential to be the form of government that comes closest to bringing that principle to reality. And I know that achieving that equality depends on a government shaped by fact-based debate rather than by extremist ideology and false narratives.
– Professor Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American⩘ , Sep 15, 2025.
———
Freedom! Democracy! Hope!
Photo by Chris F⩘ via Pexels.
Rebecca Solnit, a writer I really appreciate, wrote an excellent opinion piece today titled "New beginnings" as part of an article by multiple writers titled 'A historic beatdown': Americans take back their country in rebuke to Trump⩘ :
New beginnings
Landslide. Tsunami. Earthquake.
In this historic night, Americans took their country back, making epic changes to the political map, putting blue back in places that had been solid red for decades. Everyone I knew was almost afraid to hope, auspicious though the polls and other signs were, afraid to set themselves up for disappointment, and then last night came report after report of almost unbelievable victories, the Senate retaken, the House retaken.
It is a profound repudiation of Trumpism, helped along by Trump's unerring ability to pick truly despicable candidates from Texas's criminal Ken Paxton to Ohio's creep Vivek Ramaswamy to South Carolina's inane Darline Graham.
In that it's the end of something, and when the celebration is over, it'll be time to remember it's the beginning of something, of rebuilding this country in all the ways it's been broken and corrupted. So tonight there was a finish line, and tomorrow or the day after it'll be our starting line.
'A historic beatdown': Americans take back their country in rebuke to Trump⩘ by Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian, Nov 4, 2026.
More recent contemplations⩘
Woodworking
A note about the image at the top of this page
The Windtraveler—a shoji lamp I created in the shape of a deltoidal hexecontahedron—is made of 60 deltoid-shaped faces (like kites) framed in maple. Each five deltoids meeting at the more pointed bottom tips form a pentagon, creating a total of 12 pentagons, which is a dodecahedron. Each three deltoids meeting at the broader top tips form a triangle, creating a total of 20 triangles, which is an icosahedron. Within each deltoid frame are thinner 1/4 inch inner frames made of mahogany, with additional strips that run from the top tip to the bottom tip of each deltoid forming 120 right angle triangles, which reveal a hexakis icosahedron. The inner mahogany frames are backed by washi, a traditional Japanese paper, which creates a gentle shade for the light cast by the light bulbs within to pass through.
More about this project⩘
More woodworking⩘
My journey
Love nature. As a kid, I just wanted to be out playing in the woods that surrounded our small town home. When younger, I lived a few places around the world and visited several others … then found a place in the foothills of the Rockies and my heart was home. When I'm out walking, I snap photos and post the better ones on this site to preserve the opportunity to revisit some of these exquisite experiences. Photos⩘
Love reading. Growing up, I carried armloads of books home each week from the library. Now tend to carry around a virtual stack of audiobooks. I deeply appreciate authors, narrators, and translators. Since 1999, I've been posting reviews on this site, in the more recent years focused on just those books I appreciate the most. I listen to or read a lot of genres, fiction and nonfiction, and particularly appreciate well done speculative fiction. Reading⩘
Love woodworking. A passionate amateur, I revere wood. My main focus has been shoji lamps in the shape of polyhedra. I love the light that glows through washi and deeply appreciate the folks who make these papers. I'm entranced by the dance of polyhedra patterns, and keep notes on my website about the experience of making some of the lamps. I've also made a fair bit of our furniture, and have done some woodworking to fix up our old home. Woodworking⩘
Love our beautiful, fragile planet. I'm deeply concerned about our climate and all the life we are carelessly and rapidly degrading and destroying.
Photo credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
Awed by space and astronomy. Photos of spiral galaxies melt my heart and also inspire me to wonder whether I'm originally from another planet in another galaxy far far away. See also: Our home in this wondrous universe⩘
Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Value privacy. I think online privacy should be the default state. Because it's not, I try to protect at least some of my privacy online, especially against greedy corporations.
See also:
Why I dislike artificial intelligence⩘
Privacy Is Power by Carissa Véliz⩘
Keystones: Respect, compassion, empathy, acceptance. We're all in this together.
