Heaven Into the Head, Or Head Into the Heavens

G. K. Chesterton once said that whereas the philosopher tries to get the heavens into his head, the poet asks only to get his head into the heavens. So when one asks, in today’s lingo, “Where’s your head at?” it would be ideal to answer that it’s in heaven. The problem is that most of us now live in cities where the view of heaven is blocked by ceilings and smog. People don’t even realize that every home can be a home with a view—the view of the sky—since we are living on the ...

 Portrait of Social Media Psychosis

A Muslim woman with her burqa on fire: like. A policeman using a baton to beat a masked antifa protester: like. Hillary Clinton looking gaunt and pale: like. A military helicopter armed with machine guns and headed toward the caravan of immigrants: like. She had spent a few hours scrolling one afternoon when she heard a noise outside her window, and she turned away from the screen to look outside. A neighbor was sweeping his sidewalk, pushing tiny white rocks back into his rock garden. The s...

 1937 Description of Lightspeed Travel

After a while I noticed that the sun and all the stars in his neighborhood were ruddy. Those at the opposite pole of the heaven were of an icy blue. The explanation of this strange phenomenon flashed upon me. I was still traveling, and traveling so fast that light itself was not wholly indifferent to my passage. The overtaking undulations took long to catch me. They therefore affected me as slower pulsations than they normally were, and I saw them therefore as red. Those that met me on my hea...

 Protecting the Environment as Protecting the Future

If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it. You grown ups say you love us. Please, take action. And for me,it is absolutely my responsibility to do whatever it takes to protect my child. When the haze gets serious, there is at least one thing we can do. That is to protect yourself and your loved ones. When I drew this little bear on paper, I was reminded of, when my daughter got sick, all my fear of losing her and all my hope of protecting her. I wish that all other mothers in...

 Explorocracy / Homo Diaspora

So we’re to be ravaged by speculation and thrill-seekers. We’ll be the wilds. I’ve been to deadwood planets and pioneer towns: even those way stations have their good things. We’ll open up the sky. We’ll have knowledge to sell. Uniquely detailed maps. Immer byways only locals like us can find. We have to establish our credentials as an explorocracy; so to survive and rule ourselves, we have to explore. We’ll soon have one immership in our little navy, and at least one captain. Wh...

 The Unknowable

This girl was perhaps not born of a mother. But blossomed in a peach tree: Her love fades Quicker than peach-flowers. Although I know her soft body I cannot sound out her heart; Yet we have but to make a few lines on a chart And the distance of the farthest stars In the sky can be measured.