Art/Skill/Techne
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Ideas vs. Beliefs: Transform Your Mindset
Our Purpose Is Not Understanding There is a line I keep circling back to in my own thinkering: our purpose as organic entities is not understanding. Understanding is an instrument. It helps us discover, organize, and sometimes even improve our… Continue reading
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On Cages, Currents, and Loss
Mountain Dog reflections on the concept that not every limitation is a prison, emphasizing the importance of recognizing transient constraints rather than allowing them to define our perception of reality. They advocate for resilience through honest acknowledgment of loss while… Continue reading
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Connected to the Neoliberal University
The author reflects on the pressures faced as a new PhD navigating academic and administrative roles in a Texas public university. They discuss the tension between scholarly independence and the algorithms dictating educational practices. Emphasizing the need to resist platform… Continue reading
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Two Aphorisms on Becoming
05 February 2026 (my father’s birthday) Our purpose as organic entities is not understanding. That is our instrument of discovery, organization, and improvement of circumstances. Rather, as beings who live and love and believe, our purpose is becoming. And we… Continue reading
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When Stars Fall to Earth: The Strange Journey of “Revolution” from Copernicus to Robespierre
The post explores the concept of revolution from its historical meanings to modern interpretations, focusing on two crucial anachronisms in the term “Scientific Revolution.” Initially, revolution signified cyclical restoration, as seen in political contexts from the 17th century to the… Continue reading
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Care-Free Wandering (Zhuangzi)
[PREVIOUS] Responsive to Skillful Attention Following the river where it bends—not because rivers knowbut because bending is what rivers dowhen they meet the unmovable. After months of decluttering awareness through Nagarjuna’s emptiness and learning to show up with skillful attention,… Continue reading
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Adrift in the Ether with AI: Reasoning is Relating
Our relation to AI may be less about aligning its outputs to “human values” and more about guarding our own capacity for critical examination. This involves relational reflections that forestall premature closure for instrumental certainty. But more fundamentally, prolonged interaction… Continue reading
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Into the Breath Between Strangers
the thread of life weaves weird wandering moments Continue reading
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Showing-Up for Emptiness: Excellence Between Obsession and Apathy
The concept of “showing-up” emphasizes active existence over passive presence. It involves intentional engagement with the world, others, and oneself. By exploring the balance between appetite, emotion, and intellect through the lens of askēsis, individuals can cultivate a deeper, responsive… Continue reading
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thrown upward
certainty;s chains vanishI and not-I emptying out distinctions build obedientprisons masquerading as knowledge swinging freelybeing/non-being melt each othercause/effect swallow each other fracturing compositionno independenceno permanenceno claim world resetsin the wake of unholding Continue reading
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A Fourfold for the Current Empire
I explore the concept of “transistance,” a practice of navigating life’s complexities without adhering to rigid frameworks. It emphasizes the importance of embracing ambiguity and interdependence, while rejecting traditional revolutionary approaches. I propose it is a first step of a… Continue reading
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Whispering New Directions
The text explores the concept of the practical spirit, emphasizing three modes: contemplative, scientific, and operative. It critiques the dominance of operationalism in modern society, linking it to systemic dehumanization. I advocatesfor “transistance” to navigate beyond established orientations and connect… Continue reading
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where eternity’s shadow slinks
walking about myneighborhood listeningas Debussy fillsthe day with nocturnes scurrying squirrelsleap toward safetyfrom the old thinkerplodding on along is there more bird song?do feathered cousinswhistling and chirpingapprove these preludes? a bee knocks my handon way to freshlyplanted flowerbedgathering pollenalong the… Continue reading
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Neoliberalism: The Operating System of the Society of Control
Neoliberalism, emerging as a reaction against Keynesian policies, transforms social life through market logic, individual responsibility, and state facilitation of capital. It prioritizes deregulation, privatization, and austerity, reframing citizens as entrepreneurial actors. In Texas, neoliberal policies since the 1990s have… Continue reading
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The Great Awakening Trembles
The Great Awakening trembles before the abyss, its laurels withered by the winds of dialectic. Continue reading
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Jazz Theorbo
My beautiful sibling Dušan Ballarin (University of North Texas, Indiana University, Juilliard) is one of a very few who study Renaissance/Baroque music who could pull off showing up at the Cloisters to accompany the peerless Cécille McLorin Salvant on his… Continue reading
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Encompassing – Bright Truth – Wonderful
This is a song that I started singing a few days before my dissertation defense as I walked around my neighborhood in the early morning. I think the tune goes back to when I was in the Seminary? I know… Continue reading
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For Tihleigh, 21 Oct 2023
If you do not bring your friends up with you, who will? If you do not let your friends bring you up, who really can? There is nothing else to lifting each other up than beholding that the greatest truth—freedom—obtains… Continue reading
CALL ME MAGGIE 