Essays by Larry Barnett
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
The story of America we were told in school painted a pretty picture. Unfortunately, it was not truthful, as current events make abundantly clear.
There were always contradictions within the story of America: Equality under the law accompanied by its opposite; the message of welcome on the Statue … Read the rest
There’s a reason that weaving was among humankind’s first technologies. Spacetime is constantly weaving The Eternal Now, the only time there really is. The fabric of events we tie together into a coherent narrative are the yarns we spin, and like the Ancient Greek mythology of the Fates, help us to find… Read the rest
When I was a child, my father, a Brooklyn boy with absolutely no mastery of German, would nonetheless say this to me in the morning, i.e.: “Did you have a good sleep?” “Ya, gut!” I would dutifully answer, and we would laugh.
Many people have difficulty sleeping; I’m not one of them. When I fluff my pillow … Read the rest
There’s no shortage of anger in the world. People go out of their way to punish or harm others with their words and opinions. Social media has become a hotbed of cruelty, falsehood and accusation, and people are numbed by an endless stream of insults and invective emanating from strangers, and even America’s… Read the rest
Common wisdom is that women live longer than men, but at a recent holiday party, I found myself in the company of two other widowers. Like most men, we conversed stoically about the loss of our wives in straightforward fashion; there were no tears shed as we spoke about feeling lonely and sad, although … Read the rest
I watched the news today, “oh boy,” about AI for weapons-equipped drones. The General in charge of that program spoke about being prepared to fight China, which has greatly improved its military capabilities. So here we are, thick in the middle of the digital age but once again turning our attention … Read the rest
The student of history quickly learns that new technologies do more than support the operation of culture, they transform and replace it. From the wheel to the plow, from the printing press to the iMac computer, society and everyday lives take on the characteristics of adopted technologies. Older … Read the rest
Why there is something instead of nothing continues to be a subject of debate. Although visible matter, the matter we can see and detect with our instruments comprises only 5% of the observable universe, it occupies nearly all of our attention.
It appears that most of the universe is comprised of dark… Read the rest
Some elements are compatible, others incompatible. If in prolonged close contact with each other, when compatible there is stability; when incompatible, an electro-chemical, alchemical process caused by electron transfer between the two elements alters their structure and produces transformation.… Read the rest
It’s a bit oxymoronic, “growing thinner.” We think of growth when something gets bigger, not smaller, but that’s what’s happening to me. I’m growing thinner.
At 77 years old, I now weigh what I did as a Junior in High School, and then I considered myself plump, if not downright fat. I was a chunky kid; when… Read the rest
Here’s an odd contemplation: it was not my wife of fifty years who died last May, it was me. Perhaps a ghost of my consciousness has continued to spin out an experience of my reality, my Samsara, even though my body is now long gone. Is it possible to prove that’s not true?
From “cat in a box both alive and dead”… Read the rest