I have enjoyed a leisurely weekend for the first time in several months. On Thanksgiving Day, I expressed gratitude to friends and family, but I stayed home. I slept late, drank coffee, made a simple breakfast, and read Kazantzakis's Zorba the Greek, to admire the dyonisian main character and to break with my overly apollonian … Continue reading Montaigne and Thoreau: Idle Joy
For several months now, I have been keen to read, again, Henry David Thoreau's ideas about houses and homes in Walden. Now that it is summer and I have time to read in the shade while the heat blasts on, I have finally returned to reading my good ol' friend Henry. I had missed him, … Continue reading Thoreau: Economy
I am thankful when I find time to read to nurture my inner life. This semester, for sundry reasons, I have been engulfed in academic, political, and intellectual matters. It has been difficult to find time to read for nourishing the heart and cultivating the inner life that sustains all other vital affairs. I have … Continue reading Wagamese: Fortitude, Love and Longing
A new friend has arrived to enrich my life. Richard Wagamese is speaking to me from the pages of his Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations, a poetic photobook of vital philosophy. I have welcomed his arrival at La Libélula, a sacred land in Tárcoles, Puntarenas--sacred to me, at least, and to the animate beings that are … Continue reading Wagamese: Light
As I discuss Ralph W. Emerson's Nature with my students, I have been pondering the rocks at the southeast point of Playa Colonia, in Costa Rica's Parque Nacional Marino Ballena. The central question Emerson poses in his seminal essay—the cornerstone of his philosophical vision—is: "To what end is Nature?" This is a question of final … Continue reading Sea-beaten Rocks
Daniel G. Campos 