Category: 80 Thoughts

Random posts along the way, sometimes serious, often not.

Compassion In A Time Of Distress

As I sit here, as safe as I can be in isolation while the coronavirus pandemic rages on, it’s easy to think about parallels to the economic crisis of 2008. So far, The Great Recession has been the defining moment of my…

Essentially Non-Essential: Maintaining Humanity In A Crisis

I first started thinking about this post last week while watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. On the show, Oliver played a clip of an Amazon warehouse worker complaining about having to come into work (especially in unsafe conditions, thanks…

Climate Change and Corona

Here’s a little experiment. I will list out a series of problems, and tell me if I’m talking about climate change, or the corona virus: Scientists warned us about the problem ahead of time, and were largely ignored until it…

The Epilogue

It was like a scene out of a movie. Cue the words “Ten Years Later” flashing across the screen. But it wasn’t a movie, it was real life. Whereas a movie would fast-forward over those ten years in an instant, pausing…

The Smokies and the Need for National Parks

Last summer I was in a crowded classroom, attempting to learn Danish, when the teacher asked us to name the best thing about our home country. For me, there was one clear winner: the US National Parks System. Yellowstone. Yosemite. Grand…

We All Know A Kavanaugh

Note: Despite my strong feelings on the subject, this post is not about whether or not Judge Brett Kavanaugh should or should not be seated on the Supreme Court. Nor will it reflect on the separate and important moral questions…

Life in Limbo

I’m writing this because I have no other recourse. If screaming into the abyss is all I have, then screaming into the abyss I must. I don’t quite know where to begin, but perhaps the easiest place is January of…

The 7-Stages of Climate Debate

This week, world leaders gather in Bonn, Germany for the COP 23. Since the breakthrough Paris Agreement two years ago, the US, under new (for lack of a better word) “leadership” decided to withdraw, and the two other hold-outs–Nicaragua and…