Cogito, ergo sum? I am, and sometimes I think

The radio wave is a precise frequency of high-vibration energy that carries specific packets of information.  We take it for granted that to find a particular transmission, we must turn a dial to move across the frequency spectrum. A broadcast on the FM band is fundamentally different from one on the AM band. Take Classic FM, for example. It transmits a specific genre of music. If you want to listen to classical music, that is exactly where you tune your radio.  However, if you are looking for African house music or techno-trance, Classic FM is never going to satisfy that desire.  You could write a letter to their management demanding to know why they don't play electronic tracks, but you already know the response they would offer: Classic FM plays classical music. There are other stations transmitting African house and techno.  There is simply no point in looking for a broadcast on a frequency where it doesn't exist. Instead, you use the dial to navigate...

The shortest day of the year. The solar minimum. When I am further from the sun that I will be for 365 days, in the darkest days of winter. A former US president famously quipped: You can only appreciate the highest mountain when you have been in the darkest valley.  And so it is with appreciation that I turn to face the shortest days of the year. The natural seasonal fluctuations reflect the viscitudes of life. I can't choose what happens, but I can choose how I respond.  I can choose what I make it mean. Sometimes I know, it seems that circumstances are intense. My experience, a function of my perspective, is a choice.  What do I make the situation mean? When I choose to look for the clouds, I see plenty of clouds. At the same time, when I choose to look for silver linings, I see more of those. The objective view may not be different, but the subjective view allows the beholder to see beauty when others don't. So today, on the shortest day of the year, I see the possibi...