Bob Schwartz

Above: Mega Cavern in Louisville, Kentucky. Once planned as a fallout shelter for 50,000 people, which would make it the largest civil defense shelter in America. This is a recreation of what it would have been like.

The first and only time atomic or nuclear weapons were deployed was in August 1945, with America dropping the first atomic bombs (nuclear fission) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thermonuclear weapons (nuclear fusion, hydrogen bombs) have been tested—once frequently, now not at all—but never used.

Nuclear weapons are very much still with us. Nine countries have them: United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. The global stockpile is almost 13,000 weapons, less than the 60,000 during the Cold War, but still enough to end life in this world.

The passage of time and other challenges have put this on the cultural back burner. Real threats keep coming (climate, AI, etc.). We talk about the possibility of Russia using strategic nuclear weapons, but what does that really mean to most people today? The atomic bomb was last used almost 80 years ago; the last nuclear tests were about 30 years ago.

Christopher Nolan’s new movie Oppenheimer contemplates the complexities of ultimate weapons and warfare as scientific and moral challenges, for individuals and societies. Renewed interest and attention aren’t likely to have substantial effect on our policies and global relationships. Politics and tribalism cloud our minds and culture, as Oppenheimer’s story highlights.

If you do want to explore beyond Oppenheimer, read The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986, revised 2012) by Richard Rhodes. The definitive book, awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Long (1499 pages, 2749 footnotes) but perfectly readable and compelling storytelling.

For fun and education, visit online or in Albuquerque the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History:

The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History was established in 1969 as an intriguing place to learn the story of the Atomic Age, from early research of nuclear development through today’s peaceful uses of nuclear technology. Visitors can explore how nuclear science continues to influence our world. The museum strives to present, through permanent and changing exhibits and displays, the diverse applications of nuclear science in the past, present, and future along with the stories of the field’s pioneers.

The upcoming exhibit at the museum, At Play in the Atomic Age is a playfully serious supplement to Oppenheimer:

The toys of the Atomic Age reflect the times and culture of their day. The Atomic Age was born with the Manhattan Project and blasted into the public’s consciousness in 1945. Almost as soon as the public became aware of the existence of the bomb, all things “atomic” became marketable. The promise of a technological future and the threat of nuclear war is reflected in the toys, games, music, and books produced. Their makers sought to provide children with the tools to help them to relate to the world around them and prepare them for a potentially bright but uncertain future.

A few examples of kids “playing” in the Atomic Age:

© 2023 by Bob Schwartz

For CB and the haverim

Each week it is the Jewish tradition to read a portion of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) along with a selection from the prophets. This week the haftarah (prophetic reading) is the beginning of the book of Isaiah (1:1-27).

Isaiah is perhaps the best-loved of the prophetic books. It is cited more than any other prophetic text in rabbinic literature, and more haftarot are taken from Isaiah than from any other prophetic book containing the work of literary prophets. (Haftarot are the prophetic readings chanted in synagogue on the Sabbath, holidays, and fast days.)….Not only rabbinic Judaism but also Christianity and Western culture have emphasized the book of Isaiah. First-time readers of Isaiah are often surprised to find that a well-known expression, a famous quotation, or even a favorite song comes from or is based on Isaiah.
Jewish Study Bible

While Isaiah is a complex book, as are many of the prophetic texts, the message in 1:11-17 is simple and powerful, for believers and nonbelievers, especially for anyone who claims to be listening to God, either directly or through a prophet. God and humanity don’t want empty gestures. Not if those praying hands are dirty, even bloody. “Cease to do evil. Learn to do good, seek justice.”

11 “Why need I all your sacrifices?”
says the LORD.
“I am sated with the burnt offerings of rams
and the suet of fatted beasts,
and the blood of bulls and sheep and he-goats
I do not desire.
12 When you come to see My face,
who asked this of you,
to trample My courts?
13 You shall no longer bring false grain offering,
it is incense of abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath call an assembly—
I cannot bear crime and convocation.
14 Your new moons and your appointed times
I utterly despise.
They have become a burden to me,
I cannot bear them.
15 And when you spread your palms,
I avert My eyes from you.
Though you abundantly pray,
I do not listen.
Your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash, become pure,
Remove your evil acts from My eyes.
Cease doing evil.
17 Learn to do good,
seek justice.

11. Why need I all your sacrifices? This is not a pitch for the abolition of sacrifice but rather an argument against a mechanistic notion of sacrifice, against the idea that sacrifice can put man in good standing with God regardless of human behavior. The point becomes entirely clear at the end of verse 15, when the prophet says that it is hands stained with blood stretched out in payer that are utterly abhorrent to God. Thus, the grain offering is “false” (or “futile”) because it is brought by people who have oppressed the poor and failed to defend widows and orphans.
12. Your hands are full of blood. This shocking detail is held back until the end of these two lines of poetry: the palms lifted up in prayer are covered with blood, and that is why God averts His eyes, because He can’t bear looking at them. It should be noted that Isaiah’s outrage, as it is spelled out in verse 17, is not chiefly with cultic disloyalty, as it would be for the writers in the school of Deuteronomy, but with social injustice—indifference to the plight of the poor and the helpless, exploitation of the vulnerable, acts represented here as the moral equivalent of murder.

Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible

Some call this short section of the Book of Judges (9:8-15) a fable, a parable or a fairy tale. (Note below that master translator Robert Alter goes all the way, uniquely translating the opening as “Once upon a time”.)

The trees talk to each other about which one should be king. According to the story, at that time in Israel, Abimelech had become judge (leader). Israel had fallen into apostasy, worshiping Baal-berith. But instead of being a deliverer, Abimelech was an oppressor.

What can the trees tell us about totally useless leaders?

Once upon a time the trees went to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ And the olive tree said, ‘Have I left off my rich oil, for which God and men honor me, that I should go sway over the trees?’ And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Go, you, reign over us.’ And the fig tree said to them, ‘Have I left off my sweetness and my goodly yield that I should go sway over the trees?’ And the trees said to the vine, ‘Go, you, reign over us.’ And the vine said to them, ‘Have I left off my new wine, that gladdens God and men, that I should go sway over the trees?’ And all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Go, you, reign over us.’ And the thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you are really about to anoint me king over you, come shelter in my shade. And if not, a fire shall come out from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

8. Once upon a time. The Hebrew formula hayoh hayah signals the beginning of a parable.

Judges 9:8-15, Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible

Jotham stands on Mount Gerizim, one of the two mountains overlooking Shechem (the other is Mount Ebal, which some identify with Mount Zalmon), and excoriates the Shechemite leadership with a fable and a curse. The fable, one of two examples of that genre in the Bible (see also 2 Kings 14:9; 2 Chron. 25:18), is strongly antimonarchical. It illustrates both the folly of kingship (only the worst and least qualified aspire to it) and its dangers (it destroys those who place their reliance on it). The bramble offers scant shade but is a prime cause of fire. A monarchy founded on murder can come to no good and inevitably will destroy those who support it.

Harper’s Bible Commentary

It seems, therefore, that the parable was an independent anti-monarchic work, used here to criticize Abimelech and to inform the reader that when all the trees are interested in having a king, they must beware of the thornbush and look carefully for a suitable tree. The parable is based upon a pattern of three and four, where the fourth element is different and climactic: three refusals by the useful trees—olive, fig, and grapevine—opposed to the agreement of the fourth, the thornbush. This structure emphasizes that the refusal of the useful trees cleared the way for an aggressive figure, and that Abimelech is totally useless.

Jewish Study Bible

“He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections.”
—Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence

The way through the world
Is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.
Wallace Stevens, Reply to Papini

As for people who set out to cultivate spiritual practice with aversion to the objects and desires of the senses, even if their minds and thoughts are empty and still and their contemplative visualization is perfectly clear, still when they leave quietude and get into active situations, they are like fish out of water, like monkeys out of the trees.
Man-an, An Elementary Talk on Zen

Even the most engaged of those on a spiritual journey may have thought: What if I could spend time alone, in a hermitage, a place away and apart, where secluded I could better pursue that path? Others have, so why not me?

I read an exquisite brief piece attributed to Zen master Man-an (1591-1654), An Elementary Talk on Zen, found in Minding Mind.

For those who think that the quiet and inactive life is the most conducive to realization, Man-an comments:

Concentration of right mindfulness should be cultivated most especially in the midst of activity. You need not necessarily prefer stillness….

There is a tendency to think that Zen practice will be quicker under conditions of stillness and quiet and that activity is distracting, but the power attained by cultivation in stillness is uncertain when you deal with active situations; it has a cowardly and weakly
function….

If you want to quickly attain mastery of all truths and be independent in all events, there is nothing better than concentration in activity. That is why it is said that students of mysticism working on the Way should sit in the midst of the material world….

As for people who set out to cultivate spiritual practice with aversion to the objects and desires of the senses, even if their minds and thoughts are empty and still and their contemplative visualization is perfectly clear, still when they leave quietude and get into active situations, they are like fish out of water, like monkeys out of the trees.

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