what to my untrained mind seems a most well-balanced exposition of the subject ... Catholic experts urge caution in evolution debate ...

"The idea that calling something 'random' means that it's without direction is a mistake," Townes said. "In a gas, for example, random interaction among particles ensures uniform distribution and temperature. In other words, an unplanned process produces an orderly outcome."

"Evolution," Townes said, "is like that. It's a random process that produces spectacular things."

Jesuit Fr. George Coyne, head of the Vatican observatory, agreed.

"Chance is the way we scientists see the universe. It has nothing to do with God. It's not chancy to God, it's chancy to us," Coyne said.

sad to learn the other day of the death of fr. cecil pickert ... i'd heard he was in the hospital and then i heard he died ... very unexpectedly ... he was with us at the chapter just a month ago ... i lived with him for a year in milwaukee ... my senior year ... his direct and simple caring ... his regular good humor and hopefulness ... were strong figures for me of how to be a carmelite ... rest in peace, cece ...

2500 was ok but 2501 seemed pluckier and 2502 determined and self-deluded ... i mean the numbers themselves ... not the pomes

United Airlines - Flight Summary

RedNova News - Science - Homeland Health: How Environmentalism Can Regain Lost Ground ... by Eric T. Freyfogle ...
Substantial credit for this anti-green shift goes to the capable and well-funded environmental opposition, which has been aided by journalists unwilling or unable to navigate polemical minefields. But just as much credit (or blame) belongs to the environmental movement itself, which is fragmented, incoherent, and disinclined or unable to defend itself against opposing claims. People are confused about what the cause seeks to accomplish and about the resulting costs. They worry also about the effects that environmental rules will have on liberty, private property, and the nation's ability to compete internationally.

Environmentalists can turn things around if they can rethink their priorities and craft more coherent, consistent, morally compelling ways of addressing our environmental plight. The cause needs to stress new themes: the health of the land community as a whole, protecting life and creation, and investing in America's future in ways that yield big dividends. Most of all, the movement needs to talk consistently and forcefully about good citizenship, future generations, and the morality of living responsibly.

if blogger tells me true the next post at finish your phrase will be number 2500 ... come see the meechy monkey dance this mess around

what gives me the right to say that i think low is one of the great american bands ... nothing ... what do i know ... why can't i just say i like 'em ... i do ... and the great destroyer stands up to many many listenings ... just like all their other stuff ... and i'm deeply in debt to good old amatthews (what's up kiddo?) for having introduced me many years ago ... anyway if i were a band i'd be low and i'd try to open for shirley horn if she'd have me.

happy 100th birthday, stanley kunitz ...

In the haze of afternoon,

while the air flowed saffron,

I played my game for keeps--

for love, for poetry,

and for eternal life--

after the trials of summer.

Themes & Essential Questions

gimp report: leg is not much better at all today ... sigh

started pessoa's the book of disquiet ... what is this ... some kind of proto-blog ... ? ...

I was born in a time when the majority of young people had lost faith in God, for the same reason their elders had had it - without knowing why. And since the human spirit naturally tends to make judgements based on feeling instead of reason, most of these young people chose Humanity to replace God. I, however, am the sort of person who is always on the fringe of what he belongs to, seeing not only the multitude he's a part of but also the wide-open spaces around it. That's why I didn't give up on God as completely as they did, and I never accepted Humanity.

this may be too close ...

last night at dinner i was reckoned a victim of secular society because i wondered why science needed to incorporate religious understandings ... i wondered what an infusion of religious or metaphysical discourse would or could add to the work of science ... i was told that there is no middle ground between the "positivism" of darwin's "blind chance" and the "good sense" of the christian's "divine intelligence" ...

a misstep ... i think the matter on both "sides" is a horrible reaching out to strangle holy mystery ... to deny the unfathomable complexity of our origins ... both "sides" would diminish wonder by "solving" us ... too simply ... science has good eyes ... but religion's got - uh - soul ... let science keep looking and thinking ... let religion keep knowing in its own best ways ... let science and religion meet for coffee or dinner from time to time ... let them laugh a lot over pie.

urg .... just stumbled upon this matter via Interfaith Nunnery which comments wisely on the matter ... says i

NYCWP : Weblogs & Beyond

A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices

gimp report: leg is a tiny bit better ... i can go up the stairs without the rails ... but going down is tougher ... still got a slow limpy limpy all over the place ... miss the morning walk horribly ... especially this morning which is cool and pretty after yesterday's frontal rain chased the muggy away

it's possible that all this flailing around in poetry occurs because i've never understood any of it ... (he was right so many years ago who said it) but have had this curiosity that (neither he nor) i understood ... a zombie attraction to saying in the hope of finding ... an idea or a clod or a community or a shiny wad of tinfoil ... i've got one leg on ice and one in the fire ... and stubbornly will not move ... look ... almost two and half years of doing fyp ... and what ... i'm thinking these 'unnatural' things have limits as certain as any 'natural' thing ... i don't think i've reached it yet ... but am beginning to think about it and feel it ... but i wonder if when the day comes to shut it down will i ever write again or will i have gotten it out of my system and finally be happy with my own silence ... and then a bigger silence might have to dump these books ... disappear ... or what ... for life

and it's always possible i shoulda been doing something else altogether with my time ...

gimp report: leg is sore ... there's no bruising and just a little swelling ... but i can hobble around ... this wipes out the morning walk for a while ... the stairs are lots of fun ...

so ... reading wise blood the other day spun me off into reading mystery and manners ... packed with witty & possibly true thoughts about writing reading & catholics ... which spun me into her letters ... which are pretty sharp

ya ... rub it in ... This population is likely to have maintained a moderate degree of the muscle mass from their more active days, yet seems to have started to lose some of the flexibility they had when they were younger. This results in a relatively large muscle, which is less flexible than it had been, and on occasion, it is challenged with a ballistic or explosive force, resulting in partial or complete rupture.

about forty minutes ago i jumped to avoid an angry wasp (i'd just swatted) and did some damage to my right calf ... most likely diagnosis:

eMedicine - Injuries of the Medial Calf : Article by Anthony J Saglimbeni, MD ...
A medial calf injury is a musculotendinous disruption of varying degree in the medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle that results from an acute forceful push-off with the foot. This injury occurs commonly with sports (eg, hill running, jumping, tennis), but it can occur in any activity. This injury often is seen in the intermittently active athlete, often referred to as the weekend warrior.

weekend warrior ... right ... monday bug swatter ...

i've got it iced and elevated ... now what? certainly no more acute forceful push-offs for awhile ... but i'd be happy to be able to walk at least into the doctor's office

American Life In Poetry ... kooser's way brief intro to a (the?) berry poem