Sophron: I just sat in the theater for 2 hours and 52 minutes to see Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey. And honestly, it was quite captivating.
Philon: Oh, isn’t he the same guy who directed The Dark Knight and The Prestige?
Sophron: Sure. I like his earlier work with Following, Memento, and I forget what else…
Philon:Inception, Interstellar…
Sophron: Yes — and Oppenheimer. About the theoretical physicist who led the Manhattan Project. He helped to develop the first nuclear weapons during WWII, but later on, opposed the making of the hydrogen bomb.
Philon: I know, I know. I’ll get around to watching it, but The Odyssey is what I really want to talk about. I’m a huge Homer buff. I watched Konchalovsky’s miniseries and learned Italian just to follow Rossi’s L’Odissea.
Sophron: But have you actually read the epic poem? Originally, it was meant to be spoken or sung. It was even purposefully composed with dactylic hexameter. Of course, the writing in Nolan’s film isn’t like that. It’s basically modern English spoken in American accents, which makes it more accessible, but takes away from the Homeric Greek verse. One of the characters even says, “leap of faith,” which I believe, was first used to describe an idea of Søren Kierkegaard’s.
Philon: What do you think his motive was?
Sophron: Well — Nolan’s thinking about what is emotionally powerful and easily understandable by many viewers. While at times he emphasizes a complex plot over natural dialogue, he is building a greater thematic world. Rather than being called father, Odysseus is just dad. Instead of falling into abstraction, he prefers the immediate.
Philon: So, he sacrifices what exactly — faithfulness to the source for a watered-down version of an epic? Couldn’t he at least have had some characters speaking Ancient Greek?
Sophron: I wouldn’t really put it like that.
Philon: Then tell me.
Sophron: While the language is familiar, it can be blunt, brooding, solemn. At the same time, it’s mythic. There are themes of sacrifice, honor, war, time, and human nature. He’s bridging the modern and the ancient.
Philon: I do think he was faithful to the plot — at least in spirit. Some of those scenes you could feel in your bones.
Sophron: Like what?
Philon: Besides the Cyclops’s cave, which somehow reminded me of Francisco Goya’s painting, Saturn Devouring His Son, there was another haunting sequence. I felt the horror of Circe transforming Odysseus’s crew into pigs. It was grotesque, repulsive, nightmarish. I kinda liked it.
Sophron: Yes… and what did it say about those men?
Philon: From the witch’s perspective, those pigs were who the men truly were, after removing them from their civilized facade: greedy, desperate, and violent.
Sophron: And who was Odysseus?
Philon: A man of survival and cunning and deception. A King of Ithaca. He is one who does not seek glory or gold, only the love of his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. Yet for all his gifts, he angers the gods with his hubris. He condemns his own men to death.
Sophron: But is that his fault or his own men’s? They are responsible for their fate as well.
Philon: Maybe they are, but he used Sinon as bait in the Trojan War.
Sophron: If he told Sinon, many more would’ve died.
Philon: Odysseus has to murder one of his own men to break Circe’s curse.
Sophron: If he didn’t, they all would’ve been doomed.
Philon: After outsmarting the Cyclops, Odysseus couldn’t resist taunting him.
Sophron: Okay, that might’ve been a little prideful. But he realized his mistake.
Philon: And at the end of their journey, his crew slaughters the sacred cattle of Helios.
Sophron: But Odysseus warned them not to.
Philon: How can you tell a starving man not to eat the food in front of his mouth?
Sophron: Some of those choices were made in pride, sure. But some were calculations to keep his men safe. It’s so challenging to be a leader. Every choice you make, you’re blamed for.
Philon: And what happened to his men?
Sophron: He was cursed for his pride. He suffered for many years before he was ready to return home. During that time, he was abandoned and forgotten by many, thought to already be dead. For his sacrilege, for his arrogance of cunning, he had to surrender his need for control. He had to put himself at the mercy of the gods. Only they had the power to bring him back.
Philon: And in his home were men who continually violated the law of Zeus. The suitors abused his rules of hospitality in his absence.
Sophron: Yes, and Robert Pattinson as Antinous played his role so well. He was secretive in his ruthlessness — sneering in his arrogance. For all his deception and dishonor, Odysseus fed him his shame.
Philon: You hint of the ending, but there cannot be one without a beginning.
Sophron: Before the events of this story, there was the war of Troy.
Philon: But we don’t know about Troy until later on.
Sophron: Because Nolan chooses to withhold it until Odysseus regains his memories…
Philon: Stranded on Ogygia, Odysseus is hidden from the world. Calypso claims to love him, yet she uses that affection to keep him oblivious to his past. But the true captivity is internal: he is a broken man, unable to look at the monster he became to win Troy.
Sophron: He is not ready to go back.
Philon: No — not until he can confront what he has done.
Sophron: The body may be there but the heart is not.
Philon: When the heart is ready, the mind follows.
Sophron: Odysseus used his intellect to end the war, but he had to betray himself and those who trusted in him. Under a deception of peace, the Trojan Horse became his moral failing. He unleashed the wrath of his soldiers upon civilization, destroying not just the bonds that hold people together, but the divine order as well.
Philon: What does that say about those who come from the sea?
Sophron: The men of the sea, having destroyed the sacred laws of respect, loyalty, and trust in pursuit of wealth, fame, and power, have drowned their own humanity.
Philon: This is why Ludwig Göransson’s score captured the essence of the film so well. The civilized world has been falling into moral depravity for years. The sound can at times be discordant and disconnected, blending with the spiritual corruption of the characters.
Sophron: What about the visual language?
Philon: Shot on 70mm IMAX, the film rejects colorful fantasy for an unrelenting landscape. The characters are insignificant, not glorified — lost in the horizon, struggling to find their way back. This is mythology with a gritty realism. The colors are muted and desaturated: blue, gray, black, weathered bronze. It is exhausting to trudge through these lands. It is dangerous to sail under violent skies and an all-consuming sea.
Sophron: What about the actors? For me, they took a few minutes to get used to…
Philon: I never expected Matt Damon to play Odysseus, but he was exceptional in his role. His grizzled and grayed beard, ripped and weathered physique, plain-spoken inwardness… These were the right characteristics for a flawed hero, for a repentant king.
Sophron: Yeah, but when I first saw the film, I thought to myself: “Oh, that’s Matt Damon. That’s Elliot Page. That’s Tom Holland. That’s Charlize Theron. That’s Anne Hathaway.” They’re such big names that they take away from being absorbed in the story.
Philon: I hear you, but did you think they weren’t cast properly?
Sophron: They were, but when seeing them, I think about them as Hollywood stars, not as real people.
Philon: I understand what you mean, but Nolan probably chose these actors because they are recognizable. They have a larger-than-life presence, which fits the mythological weight of an Odysseus or a Helen of Troy.
Sophron: I mean, they did act well. I was especially surprised with the performance of John Leguizamo as Eumaeus. The sincerity of him as a blind man with that old dog.
Philon: Nolan uses these actors not only because people easily identify them, as you did, but because they have versatility. They’re capable enough to convey the subtle realities of his characters while still carrying the archetypes. Some actresses, such as Lupita Nyong’o as both Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, were extraordinary in their psychological depth. Just because they didn’t resemble your preconceived image doesn’t mean they weren’t effective in their roles.
Sophron: You may be right about his strategy, but it still took me a while to adjust. If they were more unknown, I would’ve been engrossed earlier.
Philon: So, what is your judgment of the entire film?
Sophron: While I think it is over-hyped, it is destined for awards season. Nolan took a poem thousands of years old and forced modern viewers to look at the blood on the hands of a hero. It is a story of moral degradation when honor is forsaken, of a loyalty that binds people together, and of the futility of arrogance when confronted by the larger mysteries of fate. If only the dead of Hades could speak of their regrets in this life — I wonder what they would say.
“Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.
“And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.”
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Intense heatwaves. Floods. Droughts. Wildfires. Warming and acidifying oceans.
Habitat disruption. Reduced crop yields. Species extinction.
We see the effects of climate change every day, yet our leaders do nothing significant. The system rewards mass consumption and short-term profit. It doesn’t take into account our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The mentality is to use up whatever resources are available and let someone else deal with the mess. But it is the most vulnerable who suffer right now.
Developed countries have contributed most of the greenhouse gas emissions, while many of the poorest countries, despite contributing the least, are experiencing some of the most severe impacts of climate change. What is more, they have the fewest resources to adapt.
In A Short History of Progress, Ronald Wright explained that ancient societies like Mesopotamia and the Maya expanded beyond what their environment could sustain, leading to severe decline or collapse. Modern industrial civilization may be repeating similar patterns, but on a global scale.
Rapid societal “progress” can lead to unintended consequences. If we do not look at these historical patterns and take action on an international level, the impact will only become worse. Then it will be too late.
Major scientific bodies, such as NASA and the IPCC, have already concluded that climate change is causing higher temperature records, ice loss, and sea level rise. These effects are measurable and ongoing. Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), deforestation, and industrial processes are the main drivers.
We must not forget our interdependence with the land and water and air. To protect the Earth is to protect our lives and the lives of those who come after us. Children of the future need to breathe just as we do. It is our responsibility to care for one another and to hold accountable those who cause harm.
Sources:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Climate Change: Evidence.” NASA Global Climate Change, https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.
Thunberg, Greta. The Climate Book. Unabridged audiobook, Penguin Random House Audio, 2023.
Vonnegut, Kurt. A Man Without a Country. Unabridged audiobook, narrated by Norman Dietz, Recorded Books, Inc., 2005.
Wright, Ronald. A Short History of Progress. Unabridged audiobook, House of Anansi Press, 2004.
Skateboarding requires absolute attention. The brain’s Default Mode Network (a large-scale system often associated with daydreaming, worrying, and being lost in thought) becomes less dominant, allowing one to be present with carving in a pool, kickflipping down a set of stairs, and bombing a hill.
Skating creates a constant feedback loop where one struggles, bails, readjusts, and eventually lands a trick — releasing a surge of dopamine. Because the positive reinforcement is intermittent, like a slot machine, skaters have the urge to keep trying, no matter how much they fall.
Skating distorts time. Everything silences into the moment of action. There is no you or me. There is only what is happening. While meditation can come from internal anchors such as the breath and be a low-arousal process, the flow state is active, high-arousal, and driven by a pursuit that is challenging. It comes about from doing things that are neither too difficult nor too easy. They are just hard enough to require enough skill and creativity.
When skaters force themselves to override their fear and commit, they are training their ability to regulate their amygdala, the part of the brain that senses danger and processes emotions like fear and aggression. The amygdala also influences how the hippocampus encodes emotional memories. So, when someone stands on top of a 12-foot ramp, their amygdala is screaming at them to not drop in. By riding down that halfpipe, the prefrontal cortex overrides those signals to execute the movement, dampening hyperreactivity and training resilience.
Skaters are constantly rewiring their brains by learning complex motor control and spatial geometry. They’re strengthening neural circuits used for balance in their cerebellum and navigating three-dimensional space in their hippocampus. This combination of intense aerobic and anaerobic exercise, along with constant problem-solving, may protect them from decline in later life.
Skaters don’t just build mental resilience; they place an explosive cardiovascular demand on their bodies. As their brains benefit, they engage in high-intensity interval training (HIIT) while burning massive amounts of calories per hour. It is a powerful workout, strengthening the core, glutes, and legs.
Whenever someone is bending their knees to ollie or jump, they are rapidly stretching their quadriceps and calf muscles. When they are snapping the board against the concrete, they are releasing stored elastic energy, which forces the fast-twitch muscle fibers to contract.
Through these movements, skaters are crossing a high neurological threshold. They are recruiting Type II fast-twitch motor units. Motor neurons fire faster the more these explosive tricks are practiced.
Even absorbing the impact of landing causes the leg muscles to undergo a rapid eccentric contraction. Skateboarding brings the body together to function explosively and react to changing circumstances, all while remaining regulated.
Sources:
Christ, Tabea, Kim Joris Boström, Patricia Ohrmann, Henrike Britz, Heiko Wagner, and Christiane Bohn. “The Effects of a Four-Month Skateboarding Intervention on Motor, Cognitive, and Symptom Levels in Children with ADHD.” Frontiers in Pediatrics, vol. 12, 2024, article 1452851. Frontiers Media SA, https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2024.1452851.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row, 1990.
Frederick, Edward C., Jeremy J. Determan, Saunders N. Whittlesey, and Joseph Hamill. “Biomechanics of Skateboarding: Kinetics of the Ollie.” Journal of Applied Biomechanics, vol. 22, no. 1, 2006, pp. 33–40. Human Kinetics, https://doi.org/10.1123/jab.22.1.33.
Kleim, Jeffrey A., and Theresa A. Jones. “Principles of Experience-Dependent Neural Plasticity: Implications for Rehabilitation After Brain Damage.” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, vol. 51, no. 1, 2008, pp. S225–S239, https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2008/018).
Pippus, Joel, and Emily Wang. Pushing Against Trauma: Skateboarding Within a Neurosequential Model of Therapeutic Care. Hull Services and Child Trauma Academy, 2019.
Schultz, Wolfram. “Dopamine Reward Prediction-Error Signalling: A Two-Component Response.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 17, 2016, pp. 183–195, https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2015.26.
The Noble Path: A Contemporary Guide to Buddhism offers a clear and accessible exploration of Buddhism’s core teachings. Rooted in classical discourses and enriched by contemporary insight, this book examines the life of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Jewels, the Five Precepts, karma, rebirth, and more. Structured around foundational teachings, meditation practices, and ethical living, this guide opens the way to inner freedom and compassionate action.
Why do humans struggle to resist manipulation, think freely, and seek truth?
This comprehensive guide to critical thinking draws on philosophy, psychology, and education. It spans ideas from the Buddha and Socrates to existentialism and modern science.
Readers learn the principles of logic, cognitive biases, the scientific method, and the tools of propaganda, while exploring authenticity, conformity, and what it means to be human.
Topics include:
The philosophical roots of critical thinking
Understanding belief
Informal logical fallacies
Fighting propaganda
Teaching critical consciousness
Exploring Eastern perspectives
The pursuit of maturity
Clear and accessible, this book is both a practical manual and a historical journey for students, educators, and engaged citizens who want to think more clearly, act more justly, and live more wisely.
Clark is on the verge of dropping out. While his mother still romanticizes her hippie youth, his father has burned out as a radical. When he isn’t avoiding his parents, Clark likes to hide out with his outcast girlfriend on the outskirts of town. In a world that has rejected him, she’s the only one who cares.
It’s the ’90s and Clark still doesn’t know the meaning of his life. Maybe he never will. Instead of studying for his exams, he hangs out in an abandoned lot and listens to punk music. Rather than dressing up for prom, he climbs onto his roof and gazes at the stars. Yet at Emerson High, where only reputation matters, he just wants to make a name for himself. More than anything, he wants to be free.
More importantly, it is about love. It is about death.
Content Warning: This book contains mature themes that may be distressing to some readers.
Stoic Practice is a succinct interpretation of five Stoic texts. Rather than acting as a direct translation, this book developed through daily exercises. Created in the spirit of a journal, these lessons are for continual study and practice.
This text isn’t merely meant to be listened to. Stoicism is a philosophy of action.
A three-nosed performer who escaped from a small town, A man in love with a neuro-bot in a futuristic dome world, A lone seeker questing for a name in a psychedelic desert.
Blood of Other Worlds is a kaleidoscopic universe, a celebration of the strange and surreal. From the strangers of a damned fair to the grid-lines of technological lust, themes of identity and existence are explored.
Hippies. Sex. War. Politics. Drugs. Blues Music. Samurai. Life. Death. Enlightenment.
All things you find on the internet, right?
Erasure is a form of found poetry. It is made through deletion, destruction, taking away. Texts can be turned into poems through erasing part of what they once were, changing them, sculpting them into accurate representations of themselves, uncovering messages in them, or subverting them entirely. Erasure can honor the original text, mutate it into a wholly new idea, or challenge its meanings and structure.
The internet lives as an ever-changing information organism. To capture any tiny part of its existence — destroying, erasing, challenging, annoying it — is to dip a thimble in an immensity of ocean.
The internet cannot be contained.
Most of my sources will be impermanent, washing upon the shore and then away. They’re moments in infinite data. They come from titles, comments, videos, articles, webpages. While I might manipulate what already exists into a poem — deleting to create — the internet will create and destroy itself. Making its own poetry. This is only a glimpse in time, lost among the others.
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
— Stephen King
It is the Dark Tower that holds together all the universes that were, that are, and that ever will be. From this axis, multiple realities turn.
From order, there is disorder. Just as from light there is shadow. Between the worlds lies an unbearable darkness, yet it is not empty. Creatures dwell within the void between worlds. To gaze upon their ineffability is to become mad.
The Beams are the pillars that hold up the Dark Tower. In ages past, they were guarded by magic; when that faded, weaker mechanical forces replaced them, until even those broke.
When the Beams are unstable, when they are threatened, chaos spills in. All of existence shakes.
Yet even those who seek to destroy the Tower inevitably answer to it. Through every decision, to disrupt or maintain, to create or destroy, balance is preserved.
Ka has moved the wheel of destiny, guiding the steps of men, the passing of events, and the turning of the ages. None can flee from it nor command it. Only the wisest have come to accept its cosmic power.
Time can move faster or slower. It can converge, run parallel, or end all at once. Yet every decision made or not made echoes in the past, present, and future. There is no escape from the inevitable.
Even Stephen King, the storyteller, serves Ka without realizing it. Creation spills from his pen, giving rise to worlds that may soon be. He is the avatar of Gan, yet like all men, he is mortal.
The Gunslinger’s quest is chosen for him, and yet only he can follow it to its end. His hand is swift, his heart steadfast. He walks the perilous paths set before him only to lose all that he has loved. Yet his eyes remain fixed upon the Tower. It is his destiny, his unbecoming.
From the blood-red sky, the Tower sings to him: “Come-come-commala-come.’” And it is for the last of the Eld to answer its call.
To enter its doors is to stand where Ka is revealed. But not all who pass within understand what they find. For only a few, the doors open; for others, they remain forever closed.
“So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such… This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
“We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds — our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come.”
— Thích Nhất Hạnh
Black men were drafted into the Vietnam War at disproportionately high rates compared with white men. Many had less access to college deferments. Some, who might have earlier been disqualified for medical or psychological reasons, were accepted into service through President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Project 100,000. Others were only given one choice: join the military or go to prison.
They were often assigned to the most dangerous, lowest-ranking positions, only to return to America still treated as inferiors. They risked their lives in the dense jungles for each other, even for white soldiers who despised them, finding brotherhood in the firefight. Yet back in their home country, many were traumatized by what they had done, by what they had seen, unable to find steady work, unable to find acceptance anywhere.
After being sent off to Vietnam, they were told to spread the message of democracy with a gun. Yet how could the United States promote democracy while denying them their own rights? How could they adjust to the nightmare of napalm burning through skin and bone, bombed villages, and children wandering alone in the streets, some even fathered by them?
The U.S. framed its involvement as stopping communism but also acted to deter independent development outside its influence, sought to limit rival control over resources (oil, minerals, agricultural products) and markets (consumer goods, investments, trade routes), and supported regimes that were compliant with U.S. interests.
Despite everything, Black soldiers found ways to assert their humanity and solidarity. They spoke out about the war’s hypocrisies, listened to soul on the airwaves, grew their Afros out, gave each other daps, and drifted through the elephant grass in search of guerrillas.
They were often punished more harshly than white soldiers. Some were sent to places like Long Binh Jail, where conditions were hot, overcrowded, and crawling with insects. Prisoners spent long hours filling sandbags, growing increasingly frustrated by their mistreatment, until a major riot erupted on August 29, 1968. As Sarah Kramer wrote in the article “The Forgotten History of an Uprising in Vietnam”:
The reasons soldiers were serving time at LBJ varied greatly. Some were there for serious crimes, like murder. Others were there for small infractions, such as refusing a direct order to get a haircut. By the summer of 1968, over half were being held on AWOL charges…
…Despite representing 11% of the troops in Vietnam, more than 50% of the men incarcerated at the stockade were black. Many black soldiers felt they were more severely punished than white soldiers for similar offenses…
…Frustrated about being in Vietnam, and angry about their treatment in the stockade, Childress and many other black soldiers in the prison had reached a breaking point. “We were hot, and crazy, we were fed up. So we decided, we’re going to tear this M***F*** down.”
The Vietnam War reflected deeper racial divisions at home. The 1960s were a decade of intense unrest in the United States. The civil rights movement gained national attention with events such as the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. The Voting Rights Act passed later that year, following the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This period was also marked by high-profile assassinations: President John F. Kennedy in 1963, Malcolm X in 1965, and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. News of their murders fueled the resentment of soldiers stationed in Southeast Asia.
After the burning of Watts, even more young men were carried home in body bags, draped in identical American flags. First, they were used up by the government. Then they were turned into patriotic symbols, if they were acknowledged at all.
After Johnson, new domestic politics shaped the conditions of Black communities. When Richard Nixon became president, he pursued a “Southern strategy” aimed at gaining political support from white voters in the South. Funding for the Model Cities Program, which had provided jobs and resources to Black communities, was significantly reduced under his administration. Federal funding for school lunch programs serving low-income children declined.
A 1974 report by the United States Commission on Civil Rights found poor enforcement of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. There were zoning policies that pushed Black homebuyers into only Black neighborhoods. This same study showed that Nixon’s federal programs often perpetuated segregation instead of reducing it.
A separate 1974 report by the Center for National Policy Review showed a sharp decline in school desegregation enforcement. This inaction was particularly concerning because school segregation continued to be widespread.
At the same time, the Vietnam War remained Nixon’s primary geopolitical concern. He feared that North Vietnam was being sustained by military aid from the Soviet Union and China. Nixon wanted to win the war, following the same Cold War logic of Kennedy and Johnson. He continued bombing, even after removing ground troops. Ultimately, he had to sign the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, which were the first steps in the war’s conclusion. On August 8, 1974, he resigned from the presidency due to the Watergate scandal.
Activists, such as those from Vietnam Veterans Against the War, protested for improved benefits and amnesty for draft resisters who had fled. They questioned whether the war had truly ended, as U.S. personnel still remained in Vietnam.
Economic conditions were harsh at home. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed 8.6% unemployment among Vietnam veterans overall, 9.5% for Black veterans, and as high as 15% for Black veterans in New York City.
Beyond unemployment, Black communities were heavily impacted by drugs, especially heroin and marijuana. Much of it came from Vietnam, where its availability contributed to addiction among U.S. troops. There was a lack of treatment programs to handle its spread from the rural towns to inner cities.
Many veterans began experiencing serious health problems years after their return. One reason was that the U.S. military sprayed Agent Orange, a defoliant contaminated with dioxin. Troops exposed to it developed sores, tumors, respiratory issues, weight loss, and birth defects or stillbirths in their children. While many of the veterans recognized the need for collective action across racial lines, distrust persisted among Black veterans toward white administrators in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Officials like J. C. Peckarsky rejected scientific evidence linking dioxin to illness, suspected fraud among applicants, and became known for frequently denying Agent Orange claims. Other VA workers, such as Maude DeVictor, publicly criticized the Administration for lacking standards to evaluate chemical exposure claims and denying or indefinitely delaying cases.
It has slowly taken decades for Black veterans to receive accolades for their bravery during the war. Some have not been recognized at all. Many had to survive the war only to learn how to survive in their own country once again. Regrets over the suffering inflicted, over the brutal deaths of fellow soldiers, over the injustices endured, continued to haunt those who were lucky enough to come back.
War may provide a sense of purpose, it may enrich a select few, but it always exacts a heavy toll on societies. It dehumanizes both sides, who often believe they are fighting for the truth. People become conditioned to accept the unacceptable. They endure the indefensible. War collectively corrupts those who participate in it, normalizing violence, lies, hatred, and propaganda. It makes the world appear black and white, good and evil, suppressing the nuances of humanity.
It is not just up to soldiers, but to every ordinary citizen, to listen to their conscience, resist injustice, and refuse to simply follow orders. From those who spoke out after the My Lai Massacre to the release of the Pentagon Papers to mass protests in cities, there is proof that morality endures, even under immense social pressure. For a healthy society to function, there must be respect for those who question, those who challenge, and those who strive to defend what is right.
Haygood, Wil. The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home. Kindle edition, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2026. pp. xii, 5, 10, 13, 27–28, 120, 125, 136, 143, 254, 272, 276.
This story comes from the book Crooked Cucumber by David Chadwick.
Alan Watts came to Tassajara for the first time that summer with his wife, Jano. He had been a great help to Shunryu Suzuki from the first, sending him students and introducing him to colleagues in the San Francisco Asian studies scene. Several of Zen Center’s major donors at the time of the purchase of Tassajara had come through Watts and his East Coast connections. Though he loved rituals, Watts had scorned discipline, zazen, and the institutions that “reminded him of the stuffiness of British boarding schools.” He had interpreted Zen to millions and helped to open the minds of a generation, yet Suzuki’s simple presence could make him feel off balance.
Watts was a heavy drinker. He had ended a long dry period that summer on the drive down to Tassajara. Suzuki sat with him and Jano that night on the back porch of a century-old stone room overlooking the creek. Niels, attending Suzuki, joined them. Watts, usually so confident — able to improvise lucid spiels on live radio when he couldn’t even walk straight to the mike — had lost his cool and was chattering nervously. Suzuki was terribly quiet, which only made Watts talk more. Jano was quiet, too. Watts kept getting up to “have some of your marvelous water,” and each time he came back smelling more strongly of alcohol. Niels, unable to take it any longer, began talking with Watts and kept a running patter going for an hour while Suzuki and Jano sat silently.
The next day, as Niels helped Suzuki in his garden, they could hear Watts on the bridge expounding his understanding of all-that-is to some dazzled guests. He had regained his composure and was standing tall with a toga and a staff. Niels expressed regret at having talked so much the night before, saying he had been a very bad student.
Suzuki said, “Oh no, you were a very good student last night. Thank you very much.”
“Well, we used to think he was profound until we found the real thing,” Niels said.
Suzuki reacted with sudden intensity. “You completely miss the point about Alan Watts! You should notice what he has done. He is a great bodhisattva.”
For Suzuki, Watts helped millions of people discover Zen. In the ‘50s and ’60s, his lectures and books were inspirational and informative. He opened the gate so that a Zen teacher could guide them further. Although Watts disliked institutions and strict formal practice and struggled with heavy drinking, Suzuki did not judge him. Instead, he recognized the spiritual role Watts played.
There is also an irony in their encounter. Watts, famously confident and eloquent in public, became nervous and rambling in Suzuki’s presence. Suzuki could see through both of these social roles and respected Watts for who he was. He was not interested in comparisons — whether between East and West or between one teacher and another. Each had their place.
Suzuki himself was not an idealized figure either. He had his own personal flaws, which he took responsibility for, and he discouraged his students when they revered him.
The point of Zen is not to perfect oneself according to some fixed image. Rather, it is to practice sincerely and become aware of oneself exactly as one is. From that awareness, transformation happens naturally. One does not strive to become someone else.
“As long as skaters keep searching for Chin, they’ve already found him.”
– The Search for Animal Chin (1987)
1. Skateboarding is a Practice
Skateboarding is not a religion like Zen Buddhism. But it is a practice, a way of cultivating excellence, a reminder of childhood freedom and the fragility of the human body. To skate is to explore your limitations through play and to feel alive. There are no illusions about what you can and cannot do. What is revealed comes from genuine effort.
2. Stay Present
You must remain in the present moment. If you dwell on the past or feel anxious about the future, you will slam into concrete. The board responds only to awareness, and in that awareness, you are free.
3. A Global Family
You are part of an international community. From Californian pool rippers in the ’80s to Ugandan kids kickflipping down dirt roads, from teenagers in Thrasher hoodies to middle-aged dads returning after fifteen years away, people everywhere bang their boards after a gnarly trick. Skating is for everyone, regardless of skill level or background. No one learns alone. Within this community, how you approach each trick, how you develop your style, is connected to the past evolution of skating. The Olympics would not exist without the sidewalk surfers of the ‘70s.
4. Detach from Results
Do not become too attached to landing any specific trick. If you land it, that’s fine. If you don’t land it, that’s fine too. As long as you are open to learning from each attempt, and can dwell joyfully in what you are doing, you are exactly where you need to be.
The Sōtō Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki once said: “Each of you is perfect the way you are… and you can use a little improvement.”
Trying, falling, and trying again is part of the process. Success comes from engagement in the here and now, not obsessing over a specific outcome.
5. Respect Others
Respect those at the skatepark. Do not snake someone’s line or hog the mini-ramp or laugh at a beginner’s shaky turns. Harmony comes when people are considerate of each other and are mindful not to cause harm. They watch out for others. They take turns. They teach those who are just starting. With these conditions in place, fewer people get hurt. Everyone progresses.
6. Be Humble in Uncertainty
Skateboarding does not care who you think you are. One day, you might land a 900 on a half pipe; the next, you could hit a tiny pebble in your driveway and break a femur. You feel the joy of learning new tricks, yet you also realize there are countless others you may never master. And that’s perfectly fine. Some skaters flow through a bowl as if surfing on a big wave; others hit a switch heelflip down a ten-stair. From slappies to airs, the possibilities are endless. The key is to remain a beginner, open to learning from everyone. Clinging to a fixed image, or a rigid way of skating, keeps you from seeing life as it truly is.
7. Accept Your Limits
On the board, you are graceful and free. Yet you are getting older. Your ankle aches. You still feel the pop in your wrist from a slam a few months ago. You are aware of the chance of injury, of death — and still you push.
8. Find Flow in Repetition
Every movement is repetition from before. It is built from a foundation of micro-adjustments. Yet in the best of times, it is spontaneous and fluid. Like the Jazz style of Mark Gonzales in Video Days. In every line, there is something new and undiscovered. Each moment feels perfectly natural, like returning to yourself.
Zen moves beyond ordinary thinking to the direct experience of reality itself. Whereas logic relies on the law of identity (A is A) and non-contradiction (A is not not-A), Zen seeks to shock the practitioner out of these assumptions. What is also implies what is not. Therefore, it is necessary to relinquish attachment even to the concepts of what is and what is not, including in this very statement.
Zen undermines what people take to be sensical, such as their conception of subject and object, self and world, in order to reveal that which cannot be named.
Although Zen emphasizes “emptiness” (śūnyatā in Japanese), it does not assert that nothing exists or that life lacks value. Emptiness refers to the interdependent, impermanent nature of all things. There is no fixed, unchanging essence separate from the rest of the universe.
One cannot be truly free until one abandons rigid ideas about the nature of existence. Life must be engaged with fully, in the present moment — not avoided, repressed, or rationalized. Ultimately, it is the flow of being, of existing, that matters. To cling to what is is to let it slip from one’s grasp.
To be natural in Zen is to be open, spontaneous, and unobstructed. There is nothing beyond what is. When one washes the dishes, one simply washes the dishes. There is no thought of past or future, no concern about anything else. There are only the dishes, the water, and the hands in motion.
It is not enough to explain Zen. One must realize it for oneself. No books or tapes or lectures can make a Zen master. There is nothing to gain and nothing to lose. There are no words that can capture it, and yet, everything already points to what it is.
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