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Essays by Larry Barnett

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Reversion to the mean

In statistics, ‘reversion to the mean’ is a term used to describe that observation of the extreme is followed by observation of the less extreme, or one might say, a more normal average. In other words, no matter how wild results may appear, over time they return closer to normal. The same may be said of … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture Leave a comment August 8, 2022August 8, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter 17

Recent rains transform the landscape. Wildflowers suddenly cover the hillsides of the valley and grasses surge in the meadows; dormant during the dry weather but now come back to life, fresh green shoots emerge by inches everyday day. Growth is not limited to plants only, however; a new addition… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel Leave a comment August 3, 2022August 3, 2022 5 Minutes

Life, the opera

Not many of my friends like opera, but I do. Yes, it’s incessantly melodramatic, filled with extremes of human behavior, broadly comedic and invariably tragic, but that’s just what I like about it.

Opera is like life. Its main characters are tortured, and like Shakespeare’s, suffer the torments of … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture 2 Comments August 1, 2022August 1, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter 16

“Eat and be eaten. Such is the law of the universe.” So begins Pierre’s presentation to the Executive Board of the Food Science Institute. Given the stress placed upon the city’s shrinking population and its aging infrastructure, he’s invited to speak and offer his ideas about possible solutions.… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel Leave a comment July 27, 2022July 27, 2022 5 Minutes

The evolution of All-About-Me

At the beginning of 20th century, coincident with the rise of high technology and the advancement of science – the telegraph, radio, personal automobiles, and the shift from agrarian to industrial culture – the way people related to each other and themselves began a major transition:… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture Leave a comment July 25, 2022July 25, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter 15

The discovery of other “green” animals in the valley has unanticipated results. The family has expanded to include not just Homo botanicus, but the new members, the botanicus “pigs.” The botanicus children, in particular, bond with the little creatures, and spend time singing with them.… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel Leave a comment July 20, 2022July 20, 2022 5 Minutes

The power of misnomers

Remember “plug and play”? An obsolete term almost upon its introduction, it’s joined a host of other falsities of modern civilization. I put “plug and play” to the test a month ago when my wife and I bought a new HP all-in-one printer. I’m a follow-the-directions-kinda-guy, but it made no difference;… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture 1 Comment July 18, 2022July 18, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter 14

The ride through Halifax is unproblematic; the vehicle’s transponder, registered with the city government, is automatically detected and because Jacques Lehmann is the head of the Food Science Institute, his vehicle and its passengers are pre-cleared for passage. Private vehicles … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel Leave a comment July 13, 2022July 13, 2022 6 Minutes

Metaphorical Me

I am my mind and my body, and they are me. So it is that my self-consciousness imagines itself. My inner thoughts, unspoken but constructed of words nonetheless, convert my embodied experience of being to the symbolic and then back to embodied again. I feel hungry; I think “I am hungry;” I find something… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Metaphysics 2 Comments July 11, 2022July 13, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter 13

Saha awakens to the distant sound of thunder, a relatively rare experience in her life. While rainfall still falls on the wild lands of Nova Scotia, thunderstorms, with their lightening, hail and sometimes torrential downpours are infrequent. At the next clap, much louder, the entire clan… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel 1 Comment July 6, 2022July 1, 2022 5 Minutes

Excuses don’t count

In her remarkable book, The Reproduction of Evil, psychologist Sue Grand highlights the role of the onlooker. Evil, she points out, is often the result of harm inflicted on a propagator, trauma and abuse endured by the propagator at the hands of others that gets passed on to new victims, some of whom go… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture, Politics Leave a comment July 4, 2022July 1, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter 12

Fifteen years older, now 70, Pierre sips Oolong tea. “Ahh. I don’t know what I’d do without tea,” he murmurs, and then remembers his guest sitting across from him in the library. “Pour you a cup, Jacques?”

Jacques Lehmann nods, takes the cup from Pierre, brings it to his nose and inhales slowly.… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel 1 Comment June 29, 2022June 29, 2022 5 Minutes

I don’t buy it

“Glad mom and dad are not alive to see this,” my sister Gina and I agreed during a phone call the other day. We were speaking about what’s going on in America right now: a Supreme Court dominated by right-wing, religious conservatives simultaneously upholding Federal protection for gun rights while … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Politics 1 Comment June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter Eleven

Karma, the second-oldest male in the group, sits quietly on a rocky outcropping on the upper slopes of the eastern side of the valley. He reckons his location through the use of landmarks and geometry. He does not use geometry as a conscious tool; rather, his internal calculations are … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel Leave a comment June 23, 2022June 23, 2022 5 Minutes

“Malignant dissociative contagion”

This is what psychologist Sue Grand calls the type of psychological disturbance spreading across America and the world right now. It’s happened before, of course, and has been called by other names like “social hysteria,” and “group delirium.” However named, such episodes are examples of acute mass… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture 3 Comments June 20, 2022June 20, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter Ten

“Pierre? Are you there, Gittleman? It’s Lehmann from the Institute. We need to talk. People are mumbling about some secret work you’re doing. And why am I the last to know? If it’s true, of course. Please get back to me.”

Pierre reads the text. Now in his late fifties, he’s been able to … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel Leave a comment June 15, 2022June 15, 2022 5 Minutes

We are fine, yes?

There are so many ways we tell ourselves that everything is going to be just fine. “We’re America,” we’re told, “there’s nothing we can’t do when we work together.” Or, “We’re the greatest country the world has ever known.” Or “America is the world’s beacon of freedom and democracy.” When is optimism … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Culture, Environment 3 Comments June 13, 2022June 13, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter Nine

During the twenty years botanicus has roamed the forests of Nova Scotia, set loose by Pierre Gittleman to repopulate a changing planet, their tribe has slowly grown from an original four individuals to thirteen. Those four consisted of Jens, Saha, Kaya and Karma, raised by Pierre and except… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel 2 Comments June 8, 2022June 8, 2022 5 Minutes

California’s anti-democratic housing regulations

In its rush to solve a so-called housing crisis, actually a housing affordability crisis, California has disenfranchised the power of local government to determine what’s best for the community it serves. New state land-use and housing laws effectively eliminate many of the choices, options, and… Read the rest

Larry Barnett Land Use 1 Comment June 6, 2022June 6, 2022 2 Minutes

Being Green

Chapter Eight

Pierre awakens early; it’s going to be a torrid day in Halifax, another in a long line of torrid days. The rise in ocean levels has already inundated the lower lying areas of the city, and the past few months of extremely high temperatures have only made matters worse. The desalinization … Read the rest

Larry Barnett Being Green - A Novel Leave a comment June 1, 2022June 1, 2022 5 Minutes

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