Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Drive to a Funeral

Some day we mourn what is left behind...


My Aunt Sylvia Petra Solberg - 62 years the wife of my mother's eldest brother - died last week. Many of my best childhood memories have her and Uncle Harlan and their sons in them. I flew home Thanksgiving Day so that we could travel north to attend her funeral Saturday. On the 425 mile (680 km) drive from Minneapolis to Greenbush, Minnesota, we took a slight detour to see the farms in Norway Township, Traill County, North Dakota, where no Solberg lives anymore. It was a bleak day, on the way to a sad event. I was comforted by the company of my mother Kay, father Larry, and brother Steve. Sylvia's life was long and rich, her end was quick and perhaps merciful. Her lovely funeral and the fellowship that followed softened winter's gray chill.

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Our Inner Ape

A leading primatologist explains why we are who we are...


Frans De Waal's excellent book draw undeniable parallels between the great apes - bonobos and chimpanzees in particular - and humankind. In the categories of power, sex, violence, and kindness our similarities are hard to ignore. Excellent reading for the naturalist or the moralist.