July 29, 2013 / Doing Nothing
A dear friend of mine just posted a vacation image on his Facebook page. “All” that it shows is a small line of cream-colored sand and an eye-filling chunk of gray-blue water. That’s it. Not even a bright blue sky. He says that he is sitting by the ocean doing nothing. No… Read More
July 25, 2013 / Volunteering at the Butterfly Garden
Once a week I get to spend three hours in the Butterfly Garden at the Museum of Science in Boston, a small, green space I share with around 250 butterflies and a few moths, large numbers of plants, and a stream of visitors. Here are some questions they ask me: Child visitor: Are those real? Me:… Read More
July 18, 2013 / Fractal Travel
So: fractals. I never use images in these Notions posts, so I will have to use words instead. Well, I will turn to Wikipedia. It describes what is called the coastline paradox, the fact that “the measured length of a stretch of coastline depends on the scale of measurement…the… Read More
July 08, 2013 / Birthday Celebrations: Ours and Mine
Ours In the intense heat of July 4, we carried our lawn chairs, our lemonade and wine and egg salad sandwiches and brownies, and our iphones, to the Cambridge side of the Charles River. We found a fine shady spot under a tree, and there we settled down to a three-hour wait for the concert and… Read More
June 29, 2013 / Limited Mobility: A Token for the Whole
One of our daughters has, as it is kindly put, limited mobility. She can walk, but not very far without a lot of pain, and always with a cane. Not long ago, she and I decided it was long past time for her to see some of the countless geologic marvels of the West, beginning with the Grand Canyon.… Read More
June 24, 2013 / Find Your Place In It
Heard at Bryce National Park, following a visit to the Grand Canyon: “It’s just rocks. I am tired of seeing just rocks.” Imagine all the things on our planet. Bring each into your mind’s eye, then imagine each one as a dot, its own dot, but just a very tiny dot. Here are… Read More
June 10, 2013 / Wordsworth Saw It—Do You?
Earth hath not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth, like a garment, wear The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky; All… Read More
June 05, 2013 / New York Intimacy
“Mommy,” asked my daughter who lives in New Jersey, “what do you want for Christmas?” Now, she and her husband are raising three kids and their income is stretched to its utmost. So I said, “Well, how about giving me the gift of your time in the spring for a few… Read More
May 24, 2013 / Making the Familiar Strange, and Vice Versa
Maybe you’ve heard of a system called Synectics, which is used sometimes by businesses or others to enhance creative thinking and problem-solving. The idea is to try to make the familiar seem strange and the strange, familiar. It’s a way of attempting to see without prejudice,… Read More
May 20, 2013 / Dazzling Simplicity
Is this not a contradiction? An oxymoron? Yet a simple thing can dazzle one. Friday afternoon we hit the turnpike and drove out to the Berkshires, in western Massachusetts, for a long-planned weekend of hiking. On Saturday it rained, of course—not heavily, just enough to make hiking… Read More