Pat Perrin's Blog, page 8

THAT Soliloquy — Is it About Suicide?

“To be, or not to be—that is the question …” … but what is the question, really? What is Hamlet actually talking about? I was pretty slow as a teenager, so when I asked a high school English teacher this question, of course he told me, as teachers always do … “Hamlet is contemplating suicide.” […]

Intimations of Immortality

I find myself reflecting on mortality these days—wondering as we all do whether the elusive entity that we call “self” survives the death of the body. One of the most tantalizing suggestions I’ve heard comes from psychologist and neuroscientist Stephen Kosslyn. Back in 2005, he was asked this dangerous question: “What do you believe is true […]

Gaia and the Octopus

“Gaia is a tough bitch.” So observed the late biologist Lynn Margulis, who formulated the Gaia hypothesis in collaboration with James Lovelock. Margulis was warning us not to sentimentalize Gaia as “an Earth goddess for a cuddly, furry human environment …” Despite humanity’s perverse determination to destroy biodiversity, Gaia will eventually bounce back—but “probably in […]

A Magic Circle

Why do we lowly humans experience aesthetic beauty? Life started evolving on our planet somewhere between 2.7 and 3.5 billion years ago. Something happened during that time that blessed us with the ineffable pleasures of music, visual art, poetry, and the wonders of nature. What could that something be? It’s the sort of question that […]

Ruins for the Future

I see this meme pop up from time to time. And yes, I too feel a certain pang about the Library of Alexandria. Even so, I can’t help but wonder if our grief might be a tad misplaced. For one thing, just which of the four fabled destructions of the Library of Alexandria is supposed to […]

God’s Substitute: Elizabeth and Shakespeare After the Essex Rebellion — a short play

Characters: Queen Elizabeth I William Shakespeare The scene is the queen’s privy chamber in the Palace of Whitehall, February 1601. A table is scattered with books and papers. Queen Elizabeth I, less extravagantly dressed than in official portraits, sits at the table reading. Across the table from her is an empty chair. William Shakespeare enters. […]

Back to Lamarck?

“Did you know that acquired characteristics can be inherited?” My daughter dropped that little bombshell on me one day after she came home from school. “What kind of crap are they teaching you in that biology class of yours?” I grumbled. “It’s called epigenetics,” she replied. “Look it up.” I did. It blew my mind. In […]

Stitches, Stones, Spaces & Paper

I’m drawn to the creative experience—that act of discovery that can change everything … For some years, Pat lived on an old farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley—an “art farm” where she raised horses, chickens, and other animals, grew a garden, cooked on a wood-burning stove, and held art workshops, all with the help of other artists […]

The Life Force Speaks to G.B.S. Out of the Evolutionary Whirlwind

In our last post, we touched on Bernard Shaw’s all but single-handed creation of a “religion of the future”: Life Force Worship. Not surprisingly for a faith for which God does not exist (yet), Shaw received little support from established denominations. Perhaps more surprising is the animus he got from the scientifically literate—a hostility that still […]

The Evangelist and the Evolutionist

From William Jennings Bryan to George Bernard Shaw … It might seem like a rather big leap from our previous two blog posts to this one — from the Bible-thumping Bryan to the vitalist Shaw. But consider what Shaw had to say about the theory of Natural Selection: [W]hen its whole significance dawns on you, your […]