I am sad to have learned that Syd Barrett--founding member, lead guitarist, lead singer, and chief songwriter my favorite band Pink Floyd--recently died from complications of diabetes. Truly one of the great "could-have-beens" his talent was never fully realized after his mental breakdown in 1967. So sad. I have been listening to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here", two songs the band wrote in direct tribute to him.

Earlier today, I was asked to speak at the Clarksville church on September 3. It's really spooky how last week I felt led to write a sermon about 9-11, and then I get asked to speak the week before the anniversary. I am going to use that sermon, and a special version of The Eagles' "New York Minute". It is a 9-11 edit, which my friends and I in Houston created in the days after the terrorist attacks. It features the Eagles song, interspersed with various audio clips from media broadcasts about the events of 9-11.

Classes started today fro Summer Session II. I have Spanish at 7 AM every morning, then and ethics class immediately following. I have the same professor in ethics as I had in my other ethics class back in the spring. The difference between the two classes is that in the class last spring, we studied several (about 9, I think) different ethical systems, and did not get into too much depth about specific situations. In the current class (which is called Contemporary Moral Problems), we will deal with several very specific moral problems, such as genetic and reproductive biothechnologies, world hunger/poverty (and the ethics of human intervention), the death penalty and treatment of animals and the environment. These are exactly the kinds of things that interest me the most. This kind of ethics (dealing with very specific issues) is called Applied Normative Ethics, and is what I specialize in. I am so excited!!

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...