[ARCHIVE UPDATE — 1-23-18] This story could go on forever, but here’s the abbreviated version. A young woman walks into a trendy downtown bistro and grabs a stool at the bar. She possesses an almost unnatural beauty, at once alluring…
So I’m sitting by myself in a corner of this dimly lit, old-timey New York bar, on a maroon leather bench seat leaning against the wall with a bar-height, round oak table and three empty barstools between me and a…

by Stuart Greenbaum There’s battle lines being drawn Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound Everybody looks what’s going down. — Stephen Stills (“For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield) Everyone is aging; some…
The paperback Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview and Other Conversations was an impulse buy at Target. (That’s redundant, I know.) What happened next was less predictable. As the youngish cashier scanned the book, she looked up and sighed, “He inspired…
Humble Sky, the title and theme of this blog, observes that humankind need only look skyward to appreciate the obvious limit of our comprehension; and further, that this universal reality check should encourage us to be more curious and more…
If only, when people hear Joe South sing “Walk a mile in my shoes,” his poetic and encouraging metaphor for empathy would move all who “abuse, criticize and accuse.” And, if only, older adults were among the highest regarded beneficiaries…
Hypocrisy is dead. Good riddance, right? Except … the loss is exposing a hazardous void, like a sewer manhole without a cover. So, how did this happen: the passing of hypocrisy, which served with such distinction as the universally scorned…

Time will tell how our actions now will impact our descendants’ future. In such hindsight, there’s a good chance that when now becomes then, the story of this period of American history will, literally, not be too flattering. The Roman…

Deniers control the climate change debate. Not because they’re right. Any sentient human being knows they’re dead wrong. Rather it’s because deniers have established the debate ground rules. Labeling scientific reports as hoaxes, they alternately argue that regulations and costs…
Humankind has forever struggled to answer the existential question of whether we’re inherently good or evil, humane or selfish. It’s become an even tougher call in these disgruntled and divisive times. Like calling a batter’s check-swing, it depends on where…