Thinking Independently

Living on the West Coast and believing in a decent night's sleep what I do on most weeknights is videotape (yes, gasp! No TIVO or DVD yet) Charlie Rose on PBS and watch it the next day. I have an ulterior motive. I find sometimes the way an intellectual, scientist or artist or actor will phrase something in conversation plants the seeds for a poem.

Last night the guest for the hour was the judge Richard Posner. He was mentioned in the bizarre list of 100 intellectuals posted last month by Foreign Policy magazine. He has his own blog with a colleague becker-posner-blog.

I was amazed that he admitted that he didn't vote in the last presidential election. I thought that was blasphemy, can you do that?

He made me think, which I find necessary so that when someone brings up a topic such as the riots in France, one is not just blurting out pasterized received opinion. It might feel good to be part of the pack, whichever pack that happens to be but thinking things through for oneself..Ahh, now there is a lost art. One I aspire to.

~Audrey