Welcome

WELCOME TO THE GREEN PEN!

It's my personal soapbox, a place for me to express thoughts and feelings, musings and rants, reflections and recollections; to have fun with words -- about things spiritual, environmental, social, political, economic, and, from time to time, personal. And of course about peace. Soapboxes are in public places (as London's legendary Hyde Park) on purpose, and so I invite conversations with you, for it is through civil discourse that we can gain some perspective on the seeming chaos of these changing times and learn together how to shape a positive future for ourselves, our communities, and the generations to come.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Forest Fires and Climate Change: Who’s to Blame?


Regarding the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial of December 2 (“PG&E needs a rethink, not yet another rescue”), my feeling is that it is not just PG&E that needs the rethink but rather our whole system of providing basic infrastructure and utility services.

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Unity, Duality, Reality


It still feels a bit strange talking about spirituality at all much less my own. “Strange” because I used to consider myself to be agnostic. It wasn’t that I believed or didn’t believe in God or a god; it was just that I didn’t think or care about such things. And I certainly didn’t wonder what the difference was between spirituality and religion or even God. It was all sort of the same. It just wasn’t part of my life.

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Russia Reflections

The Russia I saw is not the Russia you read or hear about. Not by a long shot.


I traveled to Russia in September 2018 as part of a group of about 25 self-appointed U.S. citizen diplomats. Our ages ranged from teens to eighties, and we came from all four corners of the country and places in between. Our professional backgrounds included engineering, law, medicine, healthcare administration, real estate development, journalism, education, public administration, and more. Even a couple of high school students. Organized by Sharon Tennison and her Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI), our mission was four-fold.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Jesus, Christianity, Mysticism, and SBNR


There was no such thing as Christianity in Jesus’ time. He was not only a Jew but, even more importantly, a mystic Jew, a Kabbalist. He and Mary Magdalene together represented the Kabbalistic “Sacred Marriage”. After his death, the disciples went on to found Christianity, filtering Jesus’ teachings through their own earthly predispositions and worldviews, and redacting the gospels to fit into those worldviews, often motivated by institutional political agendas. 

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Separating Children from Parents: There Are No Words

There are no words strong enough to express what I'm feeling about it. Repugnant. Abhorrent. Immoral. Shameful. Disgusting. Sinful. Heartless. Inhumane. Inhuman, even. All are apt. None is strong enough to express what I'm feeling about the policy of the  U.S. government to tear little children away from their parents.

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Russian Meddling - Did They or Didn't They?


Yesterday, I posted on this topic to my Facebook page. (A slightly edited version of that post is reproduced at the end of this blogpost.) Shortly after that posting, the news came out about Special Prosecutor RobertMueller’s grand jury indictment of 12 Russian agents for hacking into Clinton campaign and DNC email accounts.

Now, I hold Robert Mueller in high regard and consider him to be an eminently, almost religiously, fair and honest truth seeker. Nevertheless, no matter where this legal process ends up, the underlying message I was trying to convey in my Facebook post still stands.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Thoughts and Prayers Are Not Enough

And so here we go once again, almost a weekly ritual of so-called leaders (and all of us) offering thoughts and prayers for bereaved families. When are we going to take some action to avoid future such bereaved families? And by action, I'm not just talking the usual litany regarding controlling the prevalence of guns in our society. Nor am I talking about giving more attention to mental health issues. Yes, both of those are absolutely necessary and long overdue. But even that wouldn't be getting at the root causes of such mass shootings.