: About Me

I am an RN, married for 36 years with two grown (or so they would have me believe) children. We have a Westie named Nessie who fills the empty nest quite adequately, thank you. My wife is. That's all I can say. If you knew her, you would instantly understand. So, adding it all up, my cup overflows.

I am, alas, a confirmed pessimist. Even when something good happens, I am certain that it is only a matter of time before something bad happens to even it out. Optimists, you need us, however. I'll admit that it takes an optimist to build an airplane if you'll admit that it takes a pessimist to imagine the parachute. One of my favorite quotes is from Candide, by Voltaire, when Candide, answers the question, "What is optimism?", and he replies, "it is the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well."

My passion is ...

my family

I know too much about ...

politics

My parents always told me ...

Open your eyes instead of your mouth

My childhood ambition ...

Pop singer

My favorite memory ...

Father Gary

Why I write ...

I don't have to open my mouth, technically obeying my parents

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut/Vicar of Dibley/The Rolling Stones

My first job ...

Beanwalker

My best moment ...

At the altar 36 years ago

My inspiration ...

perspiration

Religion & Spirituality > Atheism & Agnosticism Understanding the agnostic point of view

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If you are a thinking human being, requiring some sort of evidence before you believe, is there any other choice but agnosticism? Why, you may ask, hoping for that incontrovertible proof that will give you some sort of transient peace. That one shining moment that will help you at last accept what all humans cannot help but to hope for, an everlasting life. How selfish! How unthinking! To consider what has been discovered about our universe in the last century and think that we are at the center of it is so at odds with what we know that it absolutely must offend our sensiblilties. Are we,...

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