REFER TO GREY by Robert Greigos © 2007-2026

Obstacles

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:13 -0400

Had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. He’d never heard the term “empiricism”. We’d been talking about differences in point of view, whether one understanding of how the world works is intrinsically “better” than all others.

Likely you’ve heard that argument before. It isn’t new. All fundamentalists and authoritarians take that position, from Trump to the Taliban to the Nazis to the Inquisition. They begin with a set of ideas and nothing shakes their faith in instituting those ideas within everything they do and touch. This is good. That isn’t. Down with the bad. Up with the good. I’d call that position “Simple Think” because it discounts and ignores interrelationships and subtleties of process, and quite often consequence.

“Tell me something,” I said to my friend. “Do you believe that chair over their actually exists? Or, is it a delusion we both share?”

He, of course, was immediately confused. “No,” he finally said. “It actually exists.”

To which I said, “Then you are an empiricist?”

“A what?” he said.

I tried to explain that an empiricist accepts that a world of things exists outside of our own thoughts and beliefs and that knowledge about who we are and how the world works can be gained from exploring that world. He then looked the word up on his phone to find that what I explained was correct. And then he got to thinking about what that meant relative to his own beliefs, which tended toward a Christian fundamentalist point of view wherein his overwhelming concern was to religiously follow all biblically born “rules” so that he might find his way to an afterlife in “heaven”.

It wasn’t my intent, but our discussion may have totally disrupted his feelings of wellbeing for the day. Rather, it was more my intent to offer a bit of what amounted to my point of view on how the world works and what our place in it is.

I added to my explanation of “empiricism” that “rationalism” is often considered to be its opposite. But, at that point, my attempted elaboration as to what constituted “rationalism” sort of got both of us into a bit of a fluster. Always good to be crystal clear in your own mind what you know and think before attempting to explain that supposed knowledge and thinking to others. And then, of course, there are always other considerations to take into account, like how best to formulate an explanation and whether or not the other person is even open to hearing and trying to understand your thoughts. To the case in point, my friend was not ready to accept the possibility that what was written in the Bible was in any way different from knowledge the phenomenal world could offer. And so, with that bit of impasse, our discussion came to a halt.

But continuing here, by dictionary definition, “rationalism” is to be thought of as a “reasoned source of knowledge superior to and independent of sense perceptions.” That “independent of sense perceptions” part was what I was getting at by asking him if he believed that chair actually existed. And for me, reasoned understandings of what a chair is and isn’t are certainly “useful”, but are never actually comprehensively complete, especially across different person’s minds. We all have sometimes slight and sometimes major differences in our understandings of even what is right in front of us and how those things actually work. Hence, both the value and frustration of recognizing and acknowledging that points of view can differ.

Hard science and some serious thinkers consider reasoned “theory” to be a good starting point for discovery of what is and isn’t actually true. But they do not consider the matter closed just because “theory” seems emotionally satisfying or even apparently lends itself to powerful practical use. For them, “theory” must be tested against the actual unadulterated workings of the phenomenal world of things. And unfortunately for dedicated rationalists, those who rigorously adhere to a fixed set of notions or beliefs, what hard scientists consistently find when testing their theories is that nearly always they are either completely false or only partially valid. There is always always always more to learn, from both each other and from the actual workings of the phenomenal world of things. Not the imagined, nor even the hoped for workings of the world, but the actual workings.

The above images offer a view of external “things” to consider, including the adage, if you look closely, that “obstacles are a part of the journey.” Annoying they may be, but obstacles and how we think about them are always opportunities to improve our understandings of how the world works and what our place within its processes currently is and perhaps could be. And that includes comparing and discussing differences in point of view.

May you always always take advantage of opportunities to learn, and may you more often than not thoughtfully and intentionally contribute to the general wellbeing of everyone and everything everywhere.

Overture

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 19:06 -0400

He stood in the open doorway
looking eastward.
The sun was peeking,
just through the trees,
its colors bright so bright.
In a few more minutes all that
light would be obscured again,
behind the lingering gloom
of unbroken cloud cover.

But above and beside him
he could hear the pattering
of water dripping.
The ice on his roof,
filling his gutters,
was melting.
The long weeks of
paralyzing cold had
finally broken.

He thought back to yesterday
when from above he had
looked out his window and
seen that lone rabbit again,
crouched against the white
beneath bare branches,
unmoving, shivering.
For days and days, there
had been nothing to eat,
besides coarse thin
brittle shrub branches.
Soon, the thick hard snow
would melt and she or he
will be able to get at the
matted grasses and their
freshly germinating roots
beneath the soil.

Colors, patterns, forms,
all dancing in bright
light and warmth
was what he craved,
what he longed for.

He was not dismissive
of the stark monochromatic
subtleties of winter landscapes,
but he, oh so dearly missed
the dancing colors of
warmer welcoming weather,
and the captivating drama
of each and every
plant and creature
eagerly exploring all of life’s
fascinating opportunities.

Blessed, oh blessed be
the life sustaining break
in all perpetrated forms of
seemingly endless gloom.

The Bigger Picture

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 14:43 -0400

There is a rhythm to things out there,
     on the lake, close to the sky,
     and the wind, and the water.
     Those things touch me, comfort me.
     I feel at peace,
     at times exhilarated,
     and sometimes overwhelmed
     by the beauty and majesty
     of all that surrounds me.

At other times, my thoughts
     wander toward questions,
     questions about things
     I don’t quite understand,
     things that may trouble me.
     Sometimes, I seem to
     hit upon tentative answers
     and those feelings of peace return.
     At other times, I head toward home
     with an emptiness, and feelings
     of uneasiness in my gut.

I do this quite often, think about things,
     things not about me, not
     about anyone in particular,
     not even about
     things that are obvious,
     or concrete, like objects.
     It’s more about processes,
     dynamics, relationships,
     information, and what
     we tentatively call truths.

The universe is certainly vast,
     but humans mostly live
     their individual lives
     within small bubbles.
     That is where my thoughts
     have wandered today.

I am human. I, too, live my life
     within a small bubble.
     But I am not alone.
     My life touches
     and overlaps and
     affects the lives
     of other humans.
     And the lives they lead
     touch and affect my life.
     We are unavoidably
     connected to each other.

Is it wise or not that I consider
     the consequences
     for my fellow humans
     of any and all decisions
     I make to act
     or not to act?
     Or, is that an entirely
     irrelevant consideration?

Could my decisions possibly
     have consequence
     for the universe, too?
     The universe is not static.
     Its actions affect me.
     Do mine affect it?

The universe and its actions
     are relevant to me.
     My survival is at stake.
     Is the survival of the universe
     in jeopardy if my decisions
     do not consider
     consequence for it?
     Or is that a silly question?
     Perhaps the universe
     is not in jeopardy
     no matter what I do,
     or don’t do.

But the environment within which
     I live here on Earth,
     that is another story.
     Surely my actions affect it.
     And if so, surely its health
     could be in jeopardy
     as a result of what I do
     or don’t do. And if
     the environment fails
     in ways that support
     my existence, then
     my actions could put
     my own existence
     in jeopardy.

I am troubled, though.
     Have any of my fellow humans
     come to the same
     conclusions that I have?
     Some maybe, more
     than a few perhaps,
     but definitely not all.
     I wish I was not so ignorant
     about exactly why and how
     so many of my fellow humans
     behave and think the way they do.

Out here near the water,
     when it is calm
     and the sun is low
     I often do feel at peace
     with myself, and with the
     universe beyond our
     tiny lives within bubbles.

That peace I feel helps me believe
     the universe and I, together,
     have an understanding,
     that we share a mutual respect,
     and a kind of mutual trust,
     limited, of course,
     by my success in
     learning to understand.

Learning to understand?
     Understand what?
     I’ll tell you.

The universe obeys laws, laws
     that I can come to know,
     through both insightful observation
     and the processes of science,
     logic, and mathematics.
     If I also obey those laws,
     and consider the consequence
     of my actions and inactions,
     the universe and I will
     have accommodated to
     each other. An accommodation
     limited, of course,
     by any continuing
     ignorances I may have.

Within that accommodation,
     the universe reliably continues
     doing what it does
     while I feel confidently free
     to explore and question,
     wander and wonder at all
     the beauty and majesty
     our lives have to offer
     all without either of us
     tripping over or
     harming each other.

But if I return to the land
     where my fellows reside,
     all in their individual bubbles,
     I do not feel at peace.
     Fears and even disdain
     fill my thoughts,
     fears and disdain,
     but also puzzlement,
     all relating to my fellows.
     For I have found that I cannot
     totally trust them to observe
     the same laws of
     the universe that I
     know and observe.
     Nor can I trust them to
     consider the consequence
     of actions they take
     or do not take,
     for me, for each other,
     for the environment,
     or for the universe.

In other words, on land,
     the bubble I live within
     is not fully safe, reliable,
     beautiful and engaging.
     Instead, it is turbulent with
     the consequences of
     arrogance and ignorance,
     and abandoned responsibility.
     And that is sad.
     Very very sad.

It also irritates and agitates me,
     because I begin to fear
     all the un-considered and
     ill-considered consequences for
     every one of my fellow humans,
     for the environment and
     all its helpful creatures,
     and even for the universe.

How, how can I help more of my fellows
     to at least consider
     the worth of my thoughts,
     thoughts regarding
     consequence and
     responsibility?
     And of the value and utility
     of laws that are knowable
     from the workings of
     the universe itself?
     How? How can
     I do that?

Or, maybe no, perhaps that is all wrong.
     Maybe my thinking is stunted,
     blind, riddled with false assumptions.
     Maybe the comforting order
     I see in nature is not a viable
     aspiration for human behavior.
     Maybe a more accurate
     understanding of human behavior
     would be corrosion, a forest fire,
     a destructive storm, a bomb,
     a supernova, or a black hole.
     Maybe it is hopeless fantasy
     to imagine humans dancing
     in harmony with the rhythms,
     colors, and songs of nature.
     Maybe humans are actually the disease
     that will bring everything to an end.