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Horse Sense: Parable of the Sower vs. Parable of the Tares
The Parable of the Sower is found in the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) in the Bible; as well as in the Gospel of Thomas (Saying 9), part of the Gnostic literature of Coptic origin discovered in Egypt in 1945. The Thomas version is short and inconclusive. The canonical writings are quite a [...]
Horse Sense: Oil: The Long Goodbye
Peak Oil is a self-evident truth, if you aren’t a stickler about just when it should happen. Most experts agree that petroleum and fossil fuels are exhaustible resources. They are nonrenewable unless you’ve got millions of years to spare. Peak Oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum production is [...]
Horse Sense: Occasioning Hope
Sometimes I wonder why anybody bothers to get up in the morning. What drives them is necessity much of the time: they have to get up to go to the bathroom, or to eat; or to work, in order to eat; or to keep a roof over their miserable heads. It is the curse of [...]
Horse Sense: Character Then and Now
In a previous column, referring to the presidential candidates, I averred that character in the final analysis means more to us, i.e., to the welfare and benefit of the country than courage, convictions or experience. The opinion is borne out in the purpose of West Point, which from the year 1802 has existed to produce [...]
Horse Sense: Afghanistan: Distinction with a Difference
My supervisor at Oxford would sometimes press for meaningful differences (if any) in the academic distinctions I drew, say, in a historical essay. Weekly tutorials were challenging, and they made me realize how much is written which says so little. They also made me realize how often people will mistake mere distinctions for differences and [...]
Horse Sense: History in the Making
People rewrite history everyday. It is an amazing process, really, and integrity plays very little part. I’ve seen two or more like-minded people essentially agree to lie, in order to move a minority perspective in some direction or other: “The boss said we should all get together this afternoon and discuss such-and-such, because he did [...]
Horse Sense: On Memory and Record Keeping
Memory is an odd thing. Anyone who explores his or her mind daily will come to realize there’s a strange moving around of furniture that goes on. Memories shift and get shunted aside. Some take on a different perspective or different priority. For example, the memory of being jilted in high school was clear once [...]
Horse Sense: Eighty Something
April is my birth month. The Army ingrained in me that every year during my birth month, I should go to the dentist for annual checkup—and so I do. But of course, birthdays are also important occasions and milestones for us to think about the passage of time and to be grateful for the time [...]
Horse Sense: Truth for Change
Truth is a thing you imagine or perceive, but very hard to reach. It is elusive to the touch and comprehension, like the sunrise or sunset. Truth is also different and unique at every instant you view it, and no less concrete or phenomenal for being difficult to describe. Truth is the quality of being [...]
Horse Sense: Of Easter and Liberty
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem and palm branches were strewn before him as a sign of welcome and praise. The Friday after is Good Friday when Jesus was crucified nearly two thousand years ago. Of course, the Sunday following is Easter when Jesus arose from the dead in fulfillment of what [...]
