Blog o’ Gnosis

Okay, I admit it. I watch American Idol each week. I can probably name on less than one hand the TV series I’ve ever watched regularly as an adult: Roseanne, The Daily Show, American Idol. There, I did it with two fingers left to type with. I’m just not a big TV watcher. So why Idol?

Yesterday I sacrificed a half-day’s work to go meet my father for lunch in San Rafael. We do this occasionally, meeting more or less halfway between our homes: he in Oakland, me on the Sonoma coast. Actually, it’s a longer drive for me than for him, but I don’t begrudge an old man his 10 minute handicap. I say I sacrificed half a day, but that’s only part of what it feels like to see my dad. After his heart attack 10 years ago, and especially last year’s carotid artery dredging operation, I feel lucky for all the time I get to spend with him.

I was introduced to this poem years ago and loved it. Last week, browsing in a used book store, I found it again and immediately bought the book of poems it was in: Praise, by Robert Haas. I used to use his line about longing and distance as my email signature. Ross and I took [...]

I was just writing a note to a few friends and needed to lookup someone’s email address in my email program address book. Scrolling down the list, I was brought up short by noticing one I needed to delete. It belongs, or belonged, to my friend Luis Kemnitzer who died two weeks ago.