Bob Schwartz

Glazed donuts are my favorite food. By conventional standards not healthy. Refined flour, oil, sugar. Yet incomparably and indescribably delicious.

Lately I’ve decided to add an occasional half-dozen to the pantry. Only one a night, until they run out.

The photo shows one whole donut remaining in the box, along with one-half and one-sixth. There was a request by somebody for one-sixth—a donut bite. So I cut one in half, cut that half into thirds (1/2 x 1/3 = 1/6). Why, you are asking, is there only one-sixth left, when only one-sixth was requested? There is an explanation, but let it remain a mystery for now.

That is the sweet story this picture tells.

© 2023 by Bob Schwartz

This is the crown of creation. It looks like a flowering brain. Does this saguaro know something? CI, Cactus Intelligence? It is old enough, a hundred years, to have learned something. Let’s ask.

© 2023 by Bob Schwartz

First see
Then be

Once you have tried the ten thousand ways to see things as they are, once you have seen if you do see, then what?

You are not different then. Things are not different then. You can try to think, speak and act differently then. You can try to make things different and to make different things then. You may. So what? You are now as you are, things are as they are.

See?

© 2023 by Bob Schwartz

The window faces trees where the morning birds sing. Sitting in meditation, I wonder whether to leave the window open or closed. Will the birds distract? Will they sit with me and I with them? Will they be a sweet soundtrack to incorporate or ignore? Or do I shut them out for silence.

They. Don’t. Care.

© 2023 by Bob Schwartz

Today is the birthday of Che Guevara. He was a doctor, an intellectual, an idealist and a political revolutionary. History continues to reevaluate him and his life. He was not a saint and his choices of allies and roles have prompted questions. He is a martyr to a cause, certainly killed by U.S.-backed counter-revolutionaries in Bolivia.

He did not mean to become a misunderstood icon, but become one he did. Biographies are plentiful, and you can find them everywhere.

Today is also the birthday of Donald Trump. He is not an intellectual or an idealist, though he may be viewed as some sort of political revolutionary. History is already evaluating him, with a picture that gets darker and less kind every day.

Speaking of pictures, the photo of Che above is not the usual iconic one found on millions of posters, t-shirts, etc. It is one that reflects the soul and vulnerability that we acknowledge in those we admire or at least respect. The photo of Trump speaks for itself.

If you would like to celebrate Che’s birthday, watch The Motorcycle Diaries (2004).

© 2023 by Bob Schwartz