Three Wise Men
THREE WISE MEN “In Persia is the city of Saba, from which the Three Magi set out when they went to worship Jesus Christ; and in this city they are buried, in three very large and beautiful monuments, side by side. And above them there is a square building, carefully kept. The bodies are […]
Three Courage Exemplars
THREE COURAGE EXEMPLARS “Yet there was something else about the man [in the water] that kept our thoughts on him, and, which keeps our thoughts on him still. He was there, in the essential classic circumstance. Man in nature. The man in the water. For its part, nature cared nothing about the five passengers. […]
Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Beach Musings on God
BEACH MUSINGS ON GOD “If there’s heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached to it.” Jimmy Buffet “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.” Kahlil Gibrah I’ve been trying to take a walk on the beach […]
Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: George Armstrong Custer
HE’S EVERYWHERE: GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER “Now ordinary people are born forwards in Time, if you understand what I mean, and nearly everything in the world goes forward too. This makes it quite easy for the ordinary people to live, just as it would be easy to join those five dots into a […]
Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: A mind-“Neom”ing future
A MIND-“NEOM”ING FUTURE VISION “I want to be clear about this—Neom is a complex, bold, and highly ambitious undertaking and is most certainly not an easy one to deliver … But we are making strong progress, and it’s exciting to see the vision come to life.” Antoni Vivas1 Our grand trek is […]
Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Drone wars
DRONE WARS: WHOSE LAWS WILL APPLY? “Biden had quietly put in place [with a new drone strike policy in early October 2022] many of the limitations that the new policy now formalizes when he took office. The policy now officially reverses a loosening of Obama-era rules under then-President Trump, which had pushed authority for […]
Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: The Toronto Interlude
BLACK MASS? THE TORONTO INTERLUDE by Jeemes Akers “Black Mass is what you obtain once a [lithium-ion] battery has been processed for recycling. Batteries are composed of metals including lithium, manganese, cobalt, and nickel. Once a battery reaches the end of its service life, it is collected, dismantled, and shredded. The shredded material […]
Sunday coffee with Jeemes: Gotta’ love those castles
GOTTA’ LOVE THOSE CASTLES “Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.” Franz Kafka “This tower, patched unevenly with black ivy, arose like a mutilated finger from among the fists of knuckled masonry and pointed blasphemously at heaven. At night the […]
Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Juxtaposition – Elon Musk and Josephine Bates
JUXTAPOSITION: ELON MUSK AND JOSEPHINE BATES jux ta po si tion jekstepe’ ziSH(e)n noun The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. Perhaps it is the continuing tug of Chinese philosophy—the yin and yang, the beauty of complementary opposites—on my thinking […]
Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Ukrainian Quicksand, the Law of Unintended Consequences
UKRAINIAN QUICKSAND: THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES by Jeemes Akers “The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history.” Niall Ferguson “There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything.” Steve Jobs Last week, I met my close friend (and fellow Agency “cube mate”) Nat W. […]