Loosely Speaking

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Everything Else

Saturday, February 21, 2026

What's Next?

There are so many absolutely appalling crises going on in the world today... People of normal conscience and intelligence, basic humanity and awareness are appalled, are outraged, are speaking out, protesting and resisting... Most of all, wondering how these things are being permitted to go on happening. Wondering who is going to step in and take whatever steps are necessary to restore sanity and safety and call to account those intent on greed, cruelty, and destruction. Wondering why no one has... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, February 16, 2026

Back to Normal...?

After all the chaos subsides, after some court cases and sentences, possibly after some funerals and other relocations, life in these United States will not go back to 'normal.' Nor should it: "Normal" was so dysfunctional on so many levels, largely before this country refused to learn from the past or even remember its own history. The silver lining here is our opportunity to make some major changes, to institute some real corrections and improvements. We have before our eyes the results of not... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, February 12, 2026

The Joy of Reading

I've always been a reader from around 6 years old, finding immersion in other times and lives and worlds such wonderful adventures out of my own reality and whatever its limitations and frustrations. I devoured Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House books,' and read 'ALICE IN WONDERLAND' and '...THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS' and all the Pooh books over and over again. Over the course of childhood I read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and Nancy Drew, and authors like H. Ryder Haggard--'KING... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, February 7, 2026

The Reading Room

I've been reading lately... I always read at bedtime to help distract my mind and let the sleep in. Usually, it's something easy and relaxing, like satirist Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, or historical mysteries like the Cadfael series or Didius Falco in Rome. This time, it's actual history: Cicero's Letters to Atticus. It's a translation, of course, as I don't know any but the occasional bits of Latin that have wedged themselves into the English language. Also, punctuation wasn't a thing... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Just consider...

You've also probably heard the question come up: What do you miss about the past? What habits, manners, and values do you feel have unfortunately been lost? I miss consideration. It seems that hardly anyone considers what other people might need or appreciate or maybe just have their day brightened a little. It's drivers who tailgate, who speed and play high-speed car-slalom on the highway. It's people who have a full cart and never think to offer the person behind them with a couple of items to... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, December 27, 2025

Worth watching

The Year Earth Changed... A 2021 documentary with David Attenborough that shows vividly and astonishingly how conditions changed on Earth during the covid lock-down. What strikes me most is how quickly the air cleared, and how well the planet and its other lives did when humans stayed home for a while. It suggests how just stopping our activities almost completely for a few days maybe a few times a year could help the Earth rebalance to everyone's benefit. The Year Earth Changed (TV Movie 2021)... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, November 23, 2025

I was listening to an NPR call-in show today about what experts and the public think about Artificial Intelligence. I was driving, so not in a position to call in, and I had to think further about what I'd want to know. This is where my thoughts led. Can the artificially programmed mind be flexible enough to be responsive to the human/social nuances of a problem? Can morality be programmed into an AI 'mind'? Can AI comprehend what 'right' vs 'wrong' means in the human context? Mature, reasonable... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Tides are turning...

For the first time in years I sat up and watched live coverage of election returns last night. It was encouraging to see sense, optimism, and practicality weigh in with most of the elections around the country. Locally, some things I voted for won, and a couple--school board positions--didn't quite make the numbers they needed. But households making over $300,000/year will be contributing to continuing the free healthy school lunches program. Our current school board has been led by a... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, November 3, 2025

Someone Else Will Do It!

Thinking about how other countries are solving social and environmental problems while the US, mentally and emotionally stuck in the rules and judgments and condemnations, the philosophical traps of centuries past, spends time arguing about who deserves or doesn't and who is worthy or not. Self-interests top the list of considerations of deciding when and who and where a solution might be implemented disturbing no one's comfort or convenience who matters. "Not in my backyard, and not out of my... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, November 1, 2025

Darkness...

I wrote this one in another season as autumn gave way to winter... In The Dark In the dark I think of you sometimes and remember laughter that delighted you though not enough it seems. I no longer seek to laugh or feel; or share; nor trust the promises I wanted once, embraced but finally found in my arms nothing. A time there was when hope of love of welcome of desire still glowed within me banked, and waiting for a breath, and it was yours that set the embers flickering and flaring finally into... Sign in to see full entry.

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