Well, it has been the better part of a year, summer of 2008, in fact, since I last posted.
Not that I didn't think of you, gentle reader(s?).
It was just that, as Inigo Montoya put it, There was too much to explain. Indeed, there was too much to even sum up.
I will say, briefly, that Dawn's mom is still living with us; that Jonathan is graduating from college as Beth has entered it; and that I am now the permanent professor and "coordinator of the program in" philosophy and religion at El Centro College in Dallas. Dawn is still at the hospital.
I remain steadfast in not googling myself.
The Somali pirate thing would be a great boon to my sense of humor if it weren't so awful right now.
I do not put my trust in any worldly government, or business, or system--economic or political. Nevertheless, I'm in favor of gooder government and betterer business. More than ever, having watched politics in the US and worldwide the past several years, I'm convinced that I can't see my enemies, and if I can see you, you're probably not my enemy.
I'm on bloodpressure meds. It's either that or a comfy chair with fluffy pillows for eighteen hours a day, and I'm not quite there emotionally yet.
What was it like to be one of Stephen Colbert's friends in college?
I'm reading Jurgen Habermas's "Between Naturalism and Religion." I hope I get to see him before he dies--he turns 80 this year.
I'm stuck at starting Book VI of "Harry Potter."
I've read George Berkeley's "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous," Rousseau's "Discourse on the Origins of Inequality," Leibniz's "Discourse on Metaphysics," and a big chunk of Aristotle's "Metaphysics" since we last spoke.
Dawn and I have started reading together again, what a healthy thing for friends or a couple to do: we're starting into Eugene Peterson's "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places."
I find Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, parts of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, Krod Mandoon, and reruns of "Chef" essential viewing. But no one is broadcasting my viewpoint: I often enough disagree with these folks, too, just in a different way.
No new discoveries on the music front. Blues at Alligator Cafe is the saving grace in that department for me right now.
I did finally present a paper, for the first time in two years or more, at the North Texas Philosophical Association, a few weeks ago.
And to wrap up this tour, no one famous has visited us in *months*...
