Musings and Essays

It Starts With Me

I need to establish some basic principles to help me understand how I relate to the world. It Starts With Me is a short essay that that defines the essential differences between you, me, him, us and them.

The Prophetic Artist: Reflections on the Writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Living in a Kafkaesque World: Reflections On My Life and the Writings of Franz Kafka

Eulogy for John Patrick Seaton

How do you say goodbye to the person who made you what you are? This was my goodbye to my dad who died January 19, 2003. Delivered in St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, January 23, 2003

The Achill Island Essays

During February and March 1996, I spent 40 days on Achill Island on the west coast of Ireland. It was a personal retreat that coincided with my 40th birthday on February 29, 1996. The retreat was the culmination of a 4 year journey looking at the universe, the world, and deep into myself. I wrote a number of short essays on subjects that meant a lot to me. Some of them are reprinted here.

  1. Arrival - On the morning of my 40th birthday, I reflect on the outcome of my 4 year journey and the meaning of life.
  2. Srebrenica - I react to my inaction during the summer of 1995 when I did nothing while a massacre was happening in Srebrenica. I live in hope that the war-crimes tribunal doesn't find out about my complicity with the perpetrators.
  3. An Unwitting Oppressor - Could I be the beneficiary of systemic discrimination? Am I a hypocrite? Well...
  4. Welcome - We'll be welcoming 2 to 3 billion people into the world over the next couple of decades. Will we treat them as our children, or as parasites?
  5. Don't Panic! - The most useful advice for people today. The last thing this world needs is 6 billion chicken littles running around saying the sky is falling.
  6. Come Alive! - We're all here for a reason. We must find the reason that makes us want to come alive, because that is what the world needs.
  7. Anyone Can Be A Prophet - find out how.
  8. Take Off Your Shoes - If there was ever a first step in approaching the problems of our age, it is to take off our shoes.
  9. A Glorious Sunset - Any serious discussion about the meaning of life needs to start with the consideration of death.
  10. A Self-Made Man - The secret of my success? Four things...read on!
  11. No Place to Hide - How are we going to live in a world where there is no place to hide? This is the question that started me down the privacy and security path.