Jonathan Erdman, indie writer | stories and scattered scribbles

Winter Sun

by Jonathan Erdman

When we arrive in McCarthy at the beginning of the summer, we all ask each other about our winter. At the end of the summer, the topic of conversation is what we are doing for the winter. I always seem to talk to one or two people who are considering working on the North Slope, at the top of the world. A friend of...

January 12, 2019

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Postmodern Prez

by Jonathan Erdman

I was listening to the evening news tonight, on my commute home from work and heard the recap of Trump’s visit to the border, as part of his attempt to manufacture a border crises so as to 1) deflect attention from the mounting evidence that Trump knowingly worked with the Russians to win the 2016 election and 2) legitimate Trump’s use of “emergency powers.”...

January 10, 2019

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Current Events and Scattered Scribbles

January 12, 2019

Winter Sun

When we arrive in McCarthy at the beginning of the summer, we all ask each other about our winter....

by Jonathan Erdman

January 5, 2019

Canyonlands National Park

After a morning meadering through Arches, I drove an hour or so, to Canyonlands National Park. Whereas Zion had...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 4, 2019

Arches National Park

After viewing the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, I drove for a while and spent that night at a rest...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 3, 2019

Bryce Canyon: Stepping Out

After my day at Zion National Park, I was a bit uneasy. Zion was completely overrun with tourists. I...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 30, 2018

New Year’s Transitions

For me, 2018 was another bad year. Apart of me really hates to call a year “bad” — or...

by Jonathan Erdman

November 19, 2018

Alaskan Fall

Fall comes early in Alaska, so most of these pics were taken in August or September. It’s now November,...

by Jonathan Erdman

Glacier hiking in the dog days of summer

A few years back, before coming to McCarthy, I worked a two summers in Glacier Bay National Park. The...

by Jonathan Erdman

Trippy Light

My inhibitions, fighting my intuition Premature premonition Showin me the demolition of these phony niggas So ahead of my...

by Jonathan Erdman

Shut down for repairs

I’m 48 hours into my fast. It’s been 2 days since I last ate. That leaves another 24-30 hours...

by Jonathan Erdman

Getting high again

It was a bit spontaneous, but I decided to hike Bonanza trail. I cheated and drove a wheeler up...

by Jonathan Erdman

Happy Independence Day!

Like most little Alaskan bush communities, we celebrate the Fourth of July with great gusto. We’ve got creative floats...

by Jonathan Erdman

Fire Dancing at Solstice – McCarthy Alaska 2018

There’s epic mountains and breaching whales and raging rivers and scary bears and grizzled men with beards, but one...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 9, 2019

It’s time for Democrats to be the grownups voters want | Washington Post

I recently read a wonderful Op-Ed article that I thought I’d bring to your attention. It’s wonderful, not in...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 5, 2018

Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal Is a Winning Climate Strategy | The ...

Good reading in The Atlantic on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal. It highlights one of the overarching...

by Jonathan Erdman

November 8, 2018

The midterms were not a bad night for Trump | Cas Mudde | Opinion | The Guardian

“Whether the Republican establishment likes it or not – and more and more are actually perfectly happy with it...

by Jonathan Erdman

November 5, 2018

Election day and how is your stomach?

Trump is hitting the campaign trail, hitting it hard in the way that Trumpty Dumpty sort of way he...

by Jonathan Erdman

September 14, 2018

Will protests stop Trump?

My time is winding down here in McCarthy, and so I’m trying to enjoy the last week of my...

by Jonathan Erdman

Communion

This summer I’ve turned more attention to blogging, and I’ve started phazing out Facebook. In the process I’ve been...

by Jonathan Erdman

Phazing Out Facebook

“I’m off the book,” says my friend Scott. We stand together on the porch of the Golden Saloon, drinking...

by Jonathan Erdman

This is why the Gospel is political

It’s extremely weird, in retrospect, but in my evangelical circles no one ever really talked about Martin Luther King,...

by Jonathan Erdman

Republican Peter King compares NFL protests to ‘players giving Nazi ...

One way that racism persists in America is that non-Whites are not permitted to interpret their own experiences. White...

by Jonathan Erdman

The Quotable Trump

The Trumpification of the English language: “For instance, I went to Russia for a day or so, a day...

by Jonathan Erdman

Happy Birthday, Karl Marx — you were right

Marx’s 200th birthday was two days ago. With two centuries in the can, I’d be interested to hear what...

by Jonathan Erdman

Facebook: Regulate and Share The Wealth?

Quite the fascinating article today by Chris Hughes, one of the group of plucky young Harvard students who founded...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 9, 2019

The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

I started watching Ken Burns’ 18 hour documentary on Vietnam, and after five episodes I’m hooked in, way more...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 7, 2019

Binging on Westworld

I spent a pleasant New Year’s Day in my pajamas, binge-watching the first season of Westworld with one of...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 6, 2019

The Menace of Eco-fascism | New York Review

In the States we are used to thinking of environmentalism as bring a “liberal” or “left-wing” issue. This isn’t...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 31, 2018

Noname and The 50 best albums of 2018

I came across an article in The Guardian ranking the best albums of 2018. In recent years I’ve drifted...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 12, 2018

The Sting of Winter

To take the sting out of winter, I turn to Sting. It’s kind of homeopathic, an approach to healing...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 6, 2018

Freeway: Crack In The System | 2014 documentary film

“Drugs are menacing our society. They are threatening our values and undercutting our institutions. They are killing our children....

by Jonathan Erdman

December 6, 2018

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

I watched Solo last night. I like these anthology films, these stand-alone, supplemental add-ons to the Star Wars universe....

by Jonathan Erdman

Cloud Atlas (film, 2012)

It was the end of my summer season working Glacier Bay National Park, which puts it sometime circa 2012...

by Jonathan Erdman

Beloved by Toni Morrison

On the surface, the novel Beloved seems like literature that makes us more aware of the brutality of slavery...

by Jonathan Erdman

Yuval Noah Harari: Brexit will not halt drive to ‘human unification’

I’m looking forward to Yuval Harari’s new book, set to be released this August. I’m a big fan of...

by Jonathan Erdman

Happy Belated Tax Day! “We Absolutely Blew It!”

John Oliver had a fantastic bit on taxes, and I meant to post it on April 15th. I forgot,...

by Jonathan Erdman

Audre Lorde: no such thing as a single-issue struggle

Wisdom on unity and diversity, in the struggle for civil rights, by Audre Lorde, Learning from the 60s February...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 12, 2018

The Sting of Winter

To take the sting out of winter, I turn to Sting. It’s kind of homeopathic, an approach to healing...

by Jonathan Erdman

This is why the Gospel is political

It’s extremely weird, in retrospect, but in my evangelical circles no one ever really talked about Martin Luther King,...

by Jonathan Erdman

Emerging from the dish pit, no worse for the wear

The North Fork Vipassana Meditation Center is located in the foothills of the Sierras, just south of Yosemite. Not...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 29, 2018

Tribal Survival: The central, simple insight on why Evangelicals stand by Trump

I grew up Evangelical, in the Nineties. For me this meant being very aware that I was a central...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 24, 2018

Finding the key, searching the darkness

I came across this intriguing Sufi story while reading Jenny Diski’s memoir, In Gratitude. Here it is: A Mulla...

by Jonathan Erdman

November 16, 2017

Yuval Harari, author of “Sapiens,” on AI, religion, and 60-day meditation ...

I thought I’d share an excellent interview by the author of my current favorite book, Sapiens: A brief history...

by Jonathan Erdman

November 9, 2017

On the seventh day, he farted

There were more farts during group meditations than I can remember from any prior retreat, and from time to...

by Jonathan Erdman

November 3, 2017

Meditation retreat: it’s all about the eats

Eating while on retreat is probably the thing I most look forward to each day. Probably most mediators do,...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 10, 2019

Postmodern Prez

I was listening to the evening news tonight, on my commute home from work and heard the recap of...

by Jonathan Erdman

January 2, 2019

Road Trip: Zion National Park

A few months ago, in early October, I took a road trip through southern Utah, visiting four National Parks...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 27, 2018

Colin O’Brady becomes first to cross Antarctica alone, unaided

Damn these lazy, self-entitled Millennials….Also, Colin O’Brady finished his 932 mile crossing of Antarctica ahead of schedule after he...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 18, 2018

Brexit Update – UK Version: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) | ...

Note: This hilarious segment has little to do with Brexit and a good deal more to do with a...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 15, 2018

David Graeber on the Value of Work | YouTube

Short animated video by David Graeber, economist with a wry and witty anarchistic inclination. I think he’s really onto...

by Jonathan Erdman

December 13, 2018

Packages within packages

Amazon packaging… Like a Russian nesting doll.

by Jonathan Erdman

November 20, 2018

Swap Columbus Day for Democracy Day?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialist heading to Congress after that yuge and most excellent didn’t-see-that-coming grassroots victory, had a...

by Jonathan Erdman

October 7, 2018

Virtual Reality

Question: If you had the chance, would you consider living someone else’s life?

by Jonathan Erdman