Searching for contentment
In the fragrance of freshly worked wood⩘
The soft glow cast by shoji lamps⩘
The inspiration of good reads⩘
My heart is with the people of Ukraine
My contemplations about Ukraine⩘
Broken heart: Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank, Israel⩘
Abolish ICE! Restore Sanity!
Living in the Rockies
A beautiful moment of serenity during a summer morning walk.
Larger version of this photo⩘
More recent photos⩘
Reading
Robyn Gigl, All We Hide
Well narrated by Jen Richards
A captivating detective procedural set in a conservative county in a red state with a twist: the main character, Lt. Lauren Kelly, is a trans woman, providing me with insights into a life experience I know little about, which I appreciated.
Importantly, I trusted what I was reading as the author, Robyn Gigl, is a trans woman who is an attorney and advocate who has been honored by the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association, the ACLU-NJ, and the NJ Pride Network for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community.
I've said this before, but why should it matter whether we are heterosexual cisgender males, as I am, or CIS females, or LGBTQIA+ individuals? In fact, I think we benefit from and should welcome the diversity amongst us.
From the author's note at the end of the book:
These are difficult times for transgender and nonbinary people. On his first day in office, the president of the United States issued a series of executive orders declaring his belief that trans people don't have the right to exist. That's not hyperbole—just his words and actions taken at face value. And he's not alone in this view. Governors and state legislatures in approximately twenty-seven states have passed laws banning or prohibiting trans people from certain fundamental rights—like receiving appropriate healthcare, using a bathroom, changing their identity documents, or participating in sports. Policies that everyone from the Supreme Court of the United States to major media outlets have found no fault with.
I will confess that, as a transgender woman, it's hard for me to fathom why rich and powerful people fear me and other trans people. We make up a tiny fraction of the population, and like every other human being inhabiting this planet, all we're trying to do is live our best lives possible without hurting or interfering with anyone else's right to do the same. Yet, for some reason, powerful people view folks like me as an existential threat.
I certainly don't have the power or prestige that those attacking my community have, but, as a novelist, I do have a voice. As Walter Mosley once said, "Every novel that's worth its salt is about something other than the story." In my case, the something else is an effort to educate people who aren't trans as to what it's like to be a transgender woman and, hopefully, to show them that we're just like everyone else—no better, no worse—just trying to find happiness in this mixed up, jumbled up world.
Admittedly, there are times when I feel like my words are powerless against the forces arrayed against my community. But then I remind myself that I'm not alone—there are all of you. No matter what lens you view life through—cis, trans, nonbinary, or none of the above—we all should remember that we don't need to understand those who are different from us; we just need to be understanding of them. Together, let's reclaim the virtues of understanding, kindness, and empathy toward our fellow humans and once again embrace those virtues as strengths, not weaknesses. If we do, love can conquer fear.With love,
Robyn Gigl
Soho Crime, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Recorded Books, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .
Related: From her website, RobynGigl.com⩘ , I learned that she also has written a series of other crime novels, the Erin McCabe series, that have been well received.
More recent reading⩘
Contemplating
Universal healthcare
Photo by Pixabay⩘ via Pexels
From the Yale School of Public Health:
A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.…
The model identified five major sources of savings: lower pharmaceutical prices, Medicare-level payments to providers, reduced administrative overhead, less fraudulent billing, and fewer avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Even under more conservative assumptions about drug prices and fraud reduction, the researchers projected that the savings would reach at least $663 billion a year. Both figures account for an estimated $304 billion in additional spending to meet unmet medical needs, reimburse care that now goes unpaid, and provide universal dental coverage.
But the CEOs and stockholders of the big healthcare companies and venture capitol leeches would likely make less profit, so I doubt our spineless politicians will ever even consider this kind of proposal.
Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects⩘ by y Matt Kristoffersen, Yale School of Public Health, Aug 13, 2026.
More recent contemplations⩘
Fighting for American democracy
We must use our time and our space
on this little planet that we call Earth
to make a lasting contribution,
to leave it a little better than we found it,
and now that need is greater than ever before.– John Lewis, 2020
———
"So what do those of us who love American democracy do? Make noise. Take up oxygen…. Defend what is great about this nation: its people, and their willingness to innovate, work, and protect each other. Making America great has never been about hatred or destruction or the aggregation of wealth at the very top; it has always been about building good lives for everyone on the principle of self-determination. While we have never been perfect, our democracy is a far better option than the autocratic oligarchy Trump is imposing on us."…
I write these letters because I love America. I am staunchly committed to the principle of human self-determination for people of all races, genders, abilities, and ethnicities: the idea that we all have the right to work to become whatever we wish. I believe that American democracy has the potential to be the form of government that comes closest to bringing that principle to reality. And I know that achieving that equality depends on a government shaped by fact-based debate rather than by extremist ideology and false narratives.
– Professor Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American⩘ , Sep 15, 2025.
———
Swearing an oath to our constitution
United States Constitution with its preamble "We the People"
Government of the United States of America
Photo⩘ by Joseph Sohm⩘ ; licensed via Shutterstock
I admire the leadership of retired Maj Gen Paul Eaton who is speaking up in defense of our constitution and against the ongoing effort to politicize our armed forces.
Maj Gen Paul Eaton has sounded the alarm, saying in an interview with the Guardian that the effort to bend the higher echelons of the military to the US president's will was unparalleled in recent history and could have long-term dire consequences. He warned that both the reputation and efficiency of the world's most powerful fighting force was in the balance.
"There is an active effort to politicise the armed forces," Eaton said. "Once you infect the body, the cure may be very difficult and painful for presidents downstream."
I'm hoping that many people, both military and civilians, listen to his message.
Trump push to politicize US military 'reminiscent of Stalin', top general warns⩘ by Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, Jan 5, 2025.
More recent contemplations⩘
Woodworking
A note about the image at the top of this page
The Windtraveler—a shoji lamp I created in the shape of a deltoidal hexecontahedron—is made of 60 deltoid-shaped faces (like kites) framed in maple. Each five deltoids meeting at the more pointed bottom tips form a pentagon, creating a total of 12 pentagons, which is a dodecahedron. Each three deltoids meeting at the broader top tips form a triangle, creating a total of 20 triangles, which is an icosahedron. Within each deltoid frame are thinner 1/4 inch inner frames made of mahogany, with additional strips that run from the top tip to the bottom tip of each deltoid forming 120 right angle triangles, which reveal a hexakis icosahedron. The inner mahogany frames are backed by washi, a traditional Japanese paper, which creates a gentle shade for the light cast by the light bulbs within to pass through.
More about this project⩘
More woodworking⩘
My journey
Love nature. As a kid, I just wanted to be out playing in the woods that surrounded our small town home. When younger, I lived a few places around the world and visited several others … then found a place in the foothills of the Rockies and my heart was home. When I'm out walking, I snap photos and post the better ones on this site to preserve the opportunity to revisit some of these exquisite experiences. Photos⩘
Love reading. Growing up, I carried armloads of books home each week from the library. Now tend to carry around a virtual stack of audiobooks. I deeply appreciate authors, narrators, and translators. Since 1999, I've been posting reviews on this site, in the more recent years focused on just those books I appreciate the most. I listen to or read a lot of genres, fiction and nonfiction, and particularly appreciate well done speculative fiction. Reading⩘
Love woodworking. A passionate amateur, I revere wood. My main focus has been shoji lamps in the shape of polyhedra. I love the light that glows through washi and deeply appreciate the folks who make these papers. I'm entranced by the dance of polyhedra patterns, and keep notes on my website about the experience of making some of the lamps. I've also made a fair bit of our furniture, and have done some woodworking to fix up our old home. Woodworking⩘
Love our beautiful, fragile planet. I'm deeply concerned about our climate and all the life we are carelessly and rapidly degrading and destroying.
Photo credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
Awed by space and astronomy. Photos of spiral galaxies melt my heart and also inspire me to wonder whether I'm originally from another planet in another galaxy far far away. See also: Our home in this wondrous universe⩘
Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Value privacy. I think online privacy should be the default state. Because it's not, I try to protect at least some of my privacy online, especially against greedy corporations. I deeply appreciate the work that folks like Cory Doctorow⩘ and organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)⩘ are doing on our behalf.
See also:
Why I dislike artificial intelligence⩘
Privacy Is Power by Carissa Véliz⩘
McLuhan lecture on enshittification by Cory Doctorow⩘
A helpful online privacy tool:
Keystones: Respect, compassion, empathy, acceptance. We're all in this together.
