I came upon this graphic the other day, illustrating the Hierarchy of Disagreement — with seven stages of argumentation based on the Paul Graham essay, How to Disagree. Excerpt: If we’re all going to be disagreeing more, we should be careful to do it well. What does it mean to disagree well? Most readers can tell the…
The Benefits of Anthropomorphism
If you work with or care about animals, the nonhuman ones, eventually, someone will say something like, “shouldn’t you care more about what happens to people?” That question doesn’t faze me anymore. Given our predominantly anthropocentric world view, I’d actually be surprised if people didn’t ask it. I have plenty of answers for why it’s…
Why I Don’t Disclose Wildlife Locations
You may have noticed that with many of my posts, I describe the location of my photos in most general terms. There’s a reason for this, and it has nothing to do with hoarding a choice photography spot. In fact, most places where I’ve photographed wildlife are quite open to the public and well-known by…
Temporarily Absent and in Transition
The Quark is neglected and in need of some care. A personal move and multiple transitions got the best of my writing and photographing paws this month. Soon come . . . as Peter Tosh would say. In the meantime, I give you the words of Chief Seattle (Sealth) of the Duwamish, and the namesake…
The Old Things Go, Not One Lasts
Autumn Movement by Carl Sandburg I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts. The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds. The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things…
The Being versus the Getting
“Tell me — why do we require a trip to Mount Everest in order to be able to perceive one moment of reality? I mean, is Mount Everest more real than New York? Isn’t New York real?”
Lessons of the Totem Animals
Years ago, I found a book on animal totems — after pulling an all-nighter with a Navajo friend who clued us in to the shamanistic roots of animal guides and animal medicine. In this Native American spiritual tradition, we each have nine totem animals who walk with us on this life path. They appear when…
What is Precious?
This post evolved from several unrelated events . . . connected only by the meaning I assigned to them. I watched Pirate Radio, a fictional account of a pirate radio ship broadcasting off the coast of England in the 1960s. I linked out from a blog post the other day and landed on a hunting…
