Things I No Longer Believe | Mostly Bright Ideas

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Unwavering Ambivalence

July 6, 2014

There was a time, when I was a teenager and therefore remarkably witless, that I fell for every crackpot idea that crossed my path. I was certain I had extrasensory perception, could move objects with my mind and see the future, and would eventually figure out how to walk through walls. I believed in ghosts, […]

Train of Thought

January 10, 2012

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Most of us spent our childhoods bouncing back and forth between our own wants and the demands of various authority figures. In many ways, it seemed like some kind of game that we woke up in the middle of, and that required us to figure out the rules as we went along. Gradually, through a […]

Minor Indiscretions (Part 2)

June 21, 2011

Both second-grade classes were lined up along the side wall in the back of the church. Several nuns stood nearby, watching over us and offering whispered suggestions and reassuring looks. It was our First Confession, and we were all nervous. Each time the line lurched forward, I realized another soul had been bleached clean, but […]

The Climate Change Hullabaloo

April 4, 2011

I’ve always been somewhat prone to feelings of guilt. Things were my fault, for reasons I couldn’t necessarily explain. Sometimes I could draw a line from an action I’d taken and connect it directly to the disaster unfolding before me. At other times, I’d have to use a little imagination before comfortably ascending my throne […]

Things I Might Be Certain About

November 20, 2010

There was a time when I believed in UFOs, out of body experiences, ESP, ghosts, reincarnation, auras, and pretty much anything else covered by that all-purpose phrase, “There are some things we just can’t explain.” In truth, there are many things we can’t explain, including gravity’s ability to bend space, Sylvester Stallone’s ability to make the […]

Cause & Effect (Part 1)

August 3, 2010

Humans are forever trying to explain what they see, to look at some object or condition and figure out what actions produced that result. It’s called Cause & Effect, and we use it all the time in just about every area of life. We plant five rose bushes. Three of them do really well, one […]