Essays by Larry Barnett
There might be a purpose to life but answering that question is above my pay grade. An easier question might be is there a purpose to thought?
We don’t know how long it is that humans have been thinking. It’s likely that some form of thinking precedes humanity altogether. Whales and elephants, for example,… Read the rest
It was just one year ago on May 22, 2025 that Norma, my wife of fifty years, died suddenly. I’m still wrestling with the impact of that, and I expect I will for the rest of my life. In my dream world she won’t leave me alone.
When we put our home of thirty years up for sale and moved into a condo to downsize it was … Read the rest
World feel crazy enough for you right now? It certainly feels that way to me. It’s hard not to get caught up in all the drama and treat it like it matters; some of it is real of course, but some of it is not.
The Human Show is a Samsara Studios production, a combination of bits of reality mixed with totally made… Read the rest
For a while the idea of talking to your houseplants gained an audience. As living things, both plants and animals exist at a vibrational level, and establishing a resonance between you and your Begonia may be possible from a quantum perspective. I’ve been talking to my plants for more than fifty years;… Read the rest
Just another day in May, and the day my father Norman was born. As it happens, he was given an unusual gift on one of his birthdays, a copy of The Globe, a New York City newspaper printed on the day of his birth.
The Globe billed itself as “The oldest daily newspaper in the United States, Est. 1793,” and this … Read the rest
For most of my adult life I avoided sadness. I didn’t cry much and tried to stay positive, and when trouble did arise, I’d adopt a stoic attitude and set my feelings aside. While I didn’t believe the purpose of life was to be happy, I turned away from sadness until it was irrevocably thrust upon me. In retrospect,… Read the rest
We think in linear terms, creating straight lines between cause and effect. Buddhists call it Karma. The universe, however, has no straight lines; everything in spacetime travels a curved path. Moreover, the curved paths intersect and influence each other, producing complex levels of uncertainty… Read the rest
How did you become who you are? We all start as a nameless soup of chemicals, some self-catalyzing. For all the characteristics we share as living beings, each of us are nonetheless individuals with our own quirks and characteristics. The better we get to know one another, and what we generally know about… Read the rest
In preparing to sell my home of thirty years, my real estate agent advised me to update it. More than just a touch up, it was more of a modest remodel that took considerable effort and expense. It was worth it; the house sold within one day of being listed, but this is not the remodel I’m writing about. It’s … Read the rest
America’s current strategy of dominance now explicitly includes removing leaders of other countries by force or outright killing them. Killing political leaders used to be called assassination, a widely condemned practice. We used to place such brutality in a low moral category, even when it felt… Read the rest
When you live with and love someone for 50 years, you get at all: the fullness of youth, the blossoming of middle age, the challenges of getting old, memories of tenderness, vitality, decline, joy and sorrow.
I am a paternal type, a combination of care and anxiety that began in my relationship with my little… Read the rest
It happens when you hit the tip of your index finger hard with a hammer. It hurts like hell immediately, of course, and you know you’re in for trouble. Then it turns red and begins pulsating. The nail quickly gets discolored as blood seeps under it. And it hurts for days.
Within a week or so the pain mostly … Read the rest
The role of government in a democracy has always been a matter of contention. Should government’s primary effort be the protection of individual liberty or the protection of the common good?
Proponents of the former believe the protection of individual liberty includes defending private property… Read the rest
The media is on fire about the Epstein files, and rightfully so. The files reveal the way an entire class of men – wealthy, celebrated, entitled – routinely connected with each other to share contacts, socialize and enjoy themselves, often at the expense of others. In Epstein’s world, the others were… Read the rest
The force of love is among the most powerful of human experiences. I’m specifically considering love between people, not love of country, ice cream, or the many other things we say or even feel we love. I’m talking about romantic love, in all its manifestations.
Romantic love is about caring, … Read the rest
“We’re doomed,” said my therapist.
It was a notable moment that has stayed with me over all these years. He was a Jungian – not a school of psychotherapy known for being pessimistic – and he made this announcement while we were discussing humanity.
I’ve thought about it often, and depending upon the flavor… Read the rest
We imagine ourselves as having had a beginning, although at precisely what point in time it happened is uncertain, and that like taxes our end will come. We think of most things this way because that’s the way they appear and it’s what we’re taught. Within our short lives of self-awareness, we witness … Read the rest
No matter how much order nor how many distinctions we make about the universe, in essence, it’s just a soup of subatomic waves and particles. Whether this represents some sort of primordial order or billions of years of entropy and chaos, is incidental.
As human beings, we gather information and give… Read the rest
There is a point of view that argues America’s crisis is inevitable, that authoritarian barbarity is baked into our system and it’s what we have regularly and violently inflicted upon targeted domestic and international populations. It’s not an easy argument to refute.
Our brutal exercise of power… Read the rest
We only have one word for love, yet love is vastly more than one feeling or experience, so we modify it to better express its nuances. Thus it is we say, “first love” and “young love” when we speak about love in adolescence, implying its fresh excitement and energy. We use “selfish love” to describe love’s… Read the rest