philosophical Archives - Page 2 of 2

Sharing Space… Literary Citizenship and the era of Me

It's so easy to be caught looking inward. Navel gazing has never been so attractive. The culture of entitlement that surrounds us paves a yellow brick road to the Emerald City of Envy and invites us to pamper ourselves, celebrate our own egos, and neglect that which doesn't touch us. Me, me, me scream the ads. "We're all deserving," suggest the self-help gurus. Mine is better than yours, sniff the armchair critics. Narcissus would be proud. Recently, one of my author friends posted a question [...]

By irvinjgdm|2018-02-01T01:38:06+00:00February 1st, 2018|contemplative, Essays, inspirational, motivational, philosophical|1 Comment

A Discourse On Loss

"No man is an island." John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions As 2017 closes out its run, I struggle through the immensity of unmooring that the year has brought. My bubble life of structure and belief in the common decency of man has suffered a knock-out punch. As a child of the sixties, I am no stranger to turmoil. However, the bouts of political insanity that rock the country strain my belief that goodness will triumph. A minority should never determine the course of the [...]

By irvinjgdm|2017-12-31T11:59:00+00:00December 31st, 2017|contemplative, emotive, Essays, inspirational, philosophical|0 Comments

A December Manifesto: 2017

One. I am only one, but I have a voice. As a human being, as a citizen, as a child of the Creator, I must use that voice to speak out for good. Evil cannot be ignored or excused. Not for political gain. Not for corporate greed. Not out of apathy. In this season of peace, when all religions share hope, I must nourish the flame of that hope. More alike than we are different, a cut bleeds red on all our skins. A light [...]

By irvinjgdm|2017-12-03T17:26:03+00:00December 3rd, 2017|contemplative, emotive, Essays, inspirational, motivational, philosophical, seasonal|0 Comments

Honing the Harvest…

Listen. Do you hear that? The rustling of autumn grasses, the chirring of locust wings, the goodbye calls of flocking birds as the earth turns to bounty and binds itself to a new season. I have spent the summer planting, tending, filling the freezer with vegetable goodies, preparing for the months when the soil slumbers. As I put my garden to bed, the fertile blank spaces of my writing await a different kind of harvest...words, phrases, plots, themes and, above all, hope. This month I [...]

By irvinjgdm|2017-08-30T17:38:04+00:00August 30th, 2017|Essays, gardening, inspirational, motivational, nature, philosophical, seasonal|1 Comment

Saving Space For Sorrow…

When I'm immersed in a plot, one of my favorite lines to ponder is a quote from a John Irving novel The Hotel New Hampshire, I believe: "Sorrow floats." Of course, in the novel, Sorrow is a stuffed dog, but in my experience, personal now as well as professional, sorrow is that emotion that sneaks up on you when you least expect it, scares the shit out of you and then begs for attention. There isn't a doggy treat in the world that will satisfy [...]

By irvinjgdm|2017-06-28T15:34:12+00:00June 28th, 2017|contemplative, emotive, Essays, inspirational, philosophical|0 Comments