by Mark Beckwith | May 16, 2023 | Uncategorized
Freedom. The bedrock of the American experiment. It is protected in the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791: freedom to exercise one’s religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of the right to petition the...
by Mark Beckwith | May 9, 2023 | Uncategorized
When we were kids, we occasionally played a game of chicken on our bikes. Two of us would ride toward each other – as fast as we could, and the one who veered off at the last minute was identified – no, ridiculed, as a chicken. A real wuss. A designation no one...
by Mark Beckwith | May 3, 2023 | Uncategorized
It was two a.m. when I was awakened by a loud conversation taking place in the next campsite at a state campground in southern Vermont. After fifteen minutes of being forced to listen to my neighbors argue about various issues in their relationship, I decided to pay...
by Mark Beckwith | Apr 25, 2023 | Uncategorized
I cut across the edge of my next-door neighbor’s newly seeded front lawn, on my way to cross the street to see a friend. I was about nine years old. About twenty feet into my trespass, the father of the family charged out of his house: “If you don’t get off my...
by Mark Beckwith | Apr 17, 2023 | Uncategorized
Bardo is a Tibetan Buddhist term. It refers to the space between birth and rebirth, a space marked by vulnerability, in that one does know for certain what is coming next. It can also be a time for growth. I often liken bardo to the period of time when lobsters...
by Mark Beckwith | Apr 11, 2023 | Uncategorized
“No refuge could save the hireling and slave…” A poetic phrase, embedded in perhaps the most well-known tune in America: The Star-Spangled Banner. We know the tune and have memorized the words. We sing it before ball games, at the openings of town meetings, and at...
