Features

By ELLIANA KOPUT As the ecological well-being of the earth we know and love continues to suffer, so inversely grows our individual will to start living mindfully.  In considering the implications of poor environmental health, many are taking rides in the bandwagon down food trend lane.  On this issue’s analysis of current food fads, let us take a moment to consider the current craze among the streets, sheets and community college cafeterias ... kombucha tea.  When analyzing the facts, it is clear that kombucha is not worth the hype. It is, however, a tasty substitute for soda or other popular drinks.  Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage known to contain active cultures and bacteria. The beverage produces probiotic benefits, bacteria eradication and antioxidant uptake. Basically, kombu...

                                                                                                                       By JERRY H. GILL Young people today may not realize that those of us who are now old-timers were once young people.  As such, we often committed many foibles of our own.  I clearly remember two instances when I was involved in making something of a fool of myself only to have it turn out for the good. I played basketball all through my youth. When I was in high school, I played on the junior varsity team, and one of our games ended in a tie.  As the varsity teams were eager to get their game under way, our game was decided by “sudden death.” That meant whichever team scored first would be the winner. At the beginning of the overtime period, the ball came directly to ...

Story and photo  By ELLIANA KOPUT Shelly Emerson, a Pima Community College student, offers the gift of spiritual reminder through optimism, critical thinking, and creativity. As Emerson put it: Romans 12:6 tells us, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” Her book “Spiritual Mazes & Puzzles” was released in February 2017. The book contains handcrafted mazes with deep scriptural ties. Each puzzle takes the participant on a journey through a biblical lesson, some with multiple starts or endings and some with none at all.  Emerson has been a follower of God her whole life. Growing up in Minnesota, she experienced symptoms of epilepsy throughout her childhood. She received a formal diagnosis in 1971.  “I remember after I had a seizure, my mom said ... d...

By JERRY GILL In my early years as a professor, I tried to publish articles in very prestigious journals. One was “Mind” and it was edited by Professor Gilbert Ryle at Oxford University.  My first submission was about some of the ideas of Professor Quine at Harvard. In his brief rejection letter, Professor Ryle wrote: “Dear Gill: This is a very astute essay on Quine. However, all of your criticisms are couched in the form of rhetorical questions. This is a very invertebrate way of raising criticisms. Yours, Ryle.” A while later, undaunted, I submitted another essay to “Mind” where I attempted to solve the complex issue of the meaning of religious language. I put together a long essay covering all the possible views that scholars had offered in trying to deal with this subject. After a c...