Here at the APA

I am attending the American Philosophical Association, held this year in Philadelphia.  Cloaked in the shield of Invisibility, I can watch and reflect on the drama around me.  What is the "shield of invisibility?"  you wonder.  Ah-- it is quite simple.  You need to meet three criteria: one, be a woman; two, be an older woman; and third, be someone who is clearly not famous among the APA world of collegiate philosophy.  If you meet those three criteria you are guaranteed to be able to go anywhere and remain completely unseen!  Pretty cool, right?  Oh, I guess being pathologically shy helps as well. 

 I am planning on attending sessions on philosophy with/for young people, Peter Abelard, aesthetics and philosophy of education.  More as I keep my eyes and ears open and, hopefully, my mouth shut. 

A Wordle experiment

Ein Traum...

Merry Christmas and its meaning

This year, as many others as well, we scaled back on the Christmas extravaganza.  With two children in different parts of the world we were happy to have one of our "children" and his wife with us for Christmas morning.

Yesterday night I went to my Episcopal Church for the late service.  It is difficult to attend any church service, much less the Christmas Eve one, when you don't really accept the "program."  I do not think Christian dogma is true in any basic sense of the term, "true."  I do not think Christ is/was God and I have to wonder what he would think if he could see us all now.   And yet the rhythm of the church year and the comfort of the Episcopal/Anglican vision (when it is not veering into dogmatic certainty: note current turmoil over gays) lies in its willingness to see human knowledge as deeply flawed and that belief is simply a response to the mystery that is... everything.  The dogmatic Christians (those claiming absolute and complete truth of their way of seeing things) and the "born again atheists" share a common ground of certainty that smacks of the Greek vice hubris.  And hubris will get us every time.

So I am one of many who attend church services, not as hypocrites, but as humans who do succumb to the comfort of a ritual which takes us out of ourselves and as humans who acknowledge the realizing what we do not know is the first step to any pretense to human wisdom.  

OK, day two of my blog experiment and am quite uncertain as to how it appears and looks to others.  Let me try imbedding a picture.

This is Hektor Protector, my Cesky Terrier.  Ceskies are a relatively new breed to the US and have just been admitted to the miscellaneous class in the AKC.  

Welcome to a new blog-- just what Cyberspace needs, right?  Actually I am not an authority on anything and will not pontificate on what I know, see or do.  I also pledge to avoid filling the ethernet with stuff.   Wait, am I already doing precisely that?

Hmm... So, let's see if I can turn this into anything of worth, at all.