Author Archives: johndiestler

I dunno, I think I was a sophomore in high school, so that would be 1964, or there about. I had spent the summer going without the monthly haircut. It wasn’t long by today’s standards but wow, it was long … Continue reading →

The power is off… again! The utility company warned us that it would cut power in case of fire danger. There is no fire, or fire danger. Power is just gone in a patchwork pattern through the countryside. We have … Continue reading →

Okay, so this is basic driving 101. If you hit a pedestrian you immediately fail the driving test. Seems fair. If you fail to yield you also immediately fail the test, even if you didn’t hit anyone. Ha, and if … Continue reading →

I have a headlamp. I haven’t always had a headlamp, but I was told I should get a headlamp. Because it is dark in Hezekiah’s Tunnel. I am going to walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel… well, wade through the tunnel. There … Continue reading →

I’ve been thinking again, Always a potentially dangerous activity. A friend of mine is considering retiring from the same college where I retired. He put in forty years, adding his years as a student. I put in forty years, adding … Continue reading →

I’m very happy with how the songs stood on their own, without the melodies. Voetica Poetry Spoken — Read on voetica.com/voetica.php

Their great-grandmother… Their great great grandmother…

Gosh, apparently it’s less and less as time goes by. Well, I once knew, but then I didn’t. In most cases it is not a matter of dementia. At least not yet! It is just that I had a certitude … Continue reading →

Who was he? Where was he? When was he? These are very good questions for the patriarch of three of the worlds great religions. Unfortunately it is not clearly answered by the historical evidence. We have not found a cuneiform … Continue reading →

I have never really thought about who the first author was. I suppose I’ve always known that it was knowable, I just didn’t know it. Hmm, knowable. That implies that there are things unknowable. That seems to be a fact. … Continue reading →

1. My friends are gone, my hair is gray, I ache in the places where I used to play- Leonard Cohen, Tower of Song 2. I wanna be safe, safer than I am now- Ilya Anderson, Personal 3. Second floor … Continue reading →

Humans are remarkable. We have the ability to observe reality and document its existence by writing it down, freezing it for all time. This includes the things we see in the physical world, and also things in the emotional world. … Continue reading →

Such a simple word, and everything about it is complex. The most famous of the Greek myths is the story of Pandora’s Box, or more accurately, Pandora’s Jar. (Jar was mistranslated to box). Hesiod is credited with telling the story … Continue reading →

I’d like to say that I’ve been thinking about challenges. I have not. I avoid the thought because I am completely overwhelmed, inundated, and surrounded by challenges. And the list grows by the minute. The list ranges from, “Will I … Continue reading →

I’ve been thinking about encouragement for a few days. Actually, not true, I’ve been thinking about it for several years. I’ve come to the conclusion that it is an incredible healer in most, if not all, circumstances. Weirdly, most of … Continue reading →

I have done a little research in finding quotes for the list of articulate names, the names that I periodically drop. Some are famous, most are obscure. Several are very contradictory, but as Walt Whitman said, “ I am large, … Continue reading →

Homer, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Moses, Marcus Aurelius, Ovid, Josephus, the Bede, Mallory, Dante, Machiavelli, Marco Polo, Martin Luther, St. Francis, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Hugo Ball, Henry Miller, Frank Herbert, Ann Frank, Buckminster Fuller, Ivan Ilyich, Arnold Toynbee, Barbara Tuchman, Alexis … Continue reading →

We have the word “eternal”.. This led me to the word “perdurable”, which is defined as enduring continuously; imperishable…”a composer creates a perdurable aesthetic object”. This is a new word for me. I have not heard it said, nor have … Continue reading →

This is a follow up to the previous blogpost. First, I want to think about how we know things in general. Are there things that we know instinctually? We certainly know we have to breathe, and we have “fear and … Continue reading →

Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski I watched a film on Netflix, produced by Leonardo de Caprio, about the Polish American sculptor Stanislaw Szukalski. Wow. First, I had never heard of him. Now that is not a terribly … Continue reading →

Roid Rage For some this may be the worst, most disturbing subject that I’ve ever written about. Have you every had a physical reaction to watching YouTube skateboarders wipeout? It’s kinda like that. Small muscles tighten, stomach turns over slightly. … Continue reading →

So, I haven’t exactly been jumping back in the saddle, more like dipping my toe in the water. I have been subbing for a journalism class a couple of times in the last month. It’s a basic class in design, … Continue reading →

It’s all around us. News media keeps an ongoing record of accidents and mayhem that end in death. It is so dramatic and traumatic, particularly when there is a lot a mayhem. The death inside our bodies is even more … Continue reading →

What is a song? It’s good to ask simple questions now and then, because we learn the edges of things sometimes. And sometimes that’s good. A song is a blend of lyrics and melody. What about instrumentals? Hmm, it is … Continue reading →

I had a sister once. Well, actually I never knew her, she had died five years before I was born. She was born on June 10, I was born on June 11. She died on June 7, she was three … Continue reading →

Saw a film where the bad guy wanted children to stay young and play with him. A twisted sort of Peter Pan. His plan utilized a lobotomy with a Black & Decker. Gross film, don’t watch it. But it got … Continue reading →

I lived in Point Richmond, California on and off for about five years. Some apartments were converted hallways, some were the leftover spaces of a remodel. One apartment was actually an apartment on the top of a hill, at the … Continue reading →

A friend used this word recently and I realized that I haven’t poked at the concept. I have used the word, and I believe I have been intimate, but I haven’t really defined the edges. The secret ingredient to any … Continue reading →

We live by the numbers. We magically are able to drive when we get a certain age, we can imbibe alcohol at another age, and we can vote in our elections. There is no proof that we are truly qualified … Continue reading →

I’ve been watching a few too many YouTube videos. I’ve been struck by how often a narrative is used to justify behaviors. It’s also as if their has been a secret script passed around. Everyone has read the script, and … Continue reading →

I am not an expert here, but these are my thoughts. Almost every believer in God would agree that being in the center of God’s will is what they desire. This simple concept has played out in scripture and secular … Continue reading →

Blogs are often filled with common and uncommon rants. Perhaps how we end up in the wrong lanes at the toll booth. Or maybe the wrong line at the market. We got behind the gentleman with 19 items in the … Continue reading →

It’s New Year’s Eve, a time for reflection, and a time for plans. Let us first address whether this whole deal is simply a human construct. Certainly the ball dropping in NYC is a man made thing. Even the calendar … Continue reading →

Hmm, practice makes perfect? Gosh, if only that were true. Practice all you want but if there is markedly no improvement then perfection is still a long way off. Besides, my goal isn’t perfection. Ha! Not even possible! It should … Continue reading →

Tell him your plans. i’ve been thinking about planning, which is our attempt to make sense of the world, and possibly change the future. In the most common usage, planning is really quite easy. We plan to get up in … Continue reading →

I found an amusing book that deals with some of the oddities of the English language. Here is a sample… 1. Every cloud has a——— lining. 2. ——- tape 3. He looks at the world through ——— colored glasses. 4. … Continue reading →

‘‘Twas the night before Christmas…”. Well, actually this is the morning after Christmas, but I was thinking about the poem. For many homes around the world it is a family tradition to read the poem to their children on Christmas … Continue reading →

Fifty years Ago this week I was Santa Claus at our local Macy’s. I did not volunteer. I was happy to find seasonal work on the college job board. I was hired to sell womens shoes. It was a lot … Continue reading →

I just watched a YouTube video, and I find myself again cursing the net, and adoring it at the same time. This video made the bold headline statement of “35,000 Different Bacteria Species Living in Your Gut!”. This is disturbing … Continue reading →

I’ve been pondering the word “help”. At first it seemed so simple, then it got way too complicated. Helping is assisting. The perfect image definition is a man pushing a car to the gas station. You see this, you jump … Continue reading →