Author: Dave Davis

Dave Davis is a retired preschool educator for the Head Start program based at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton, NY. He is also a frequent contributor to the popular educational podcast for elementary school-aged children called “Who Smarted?” He can be reached at ddavis@eastendbeacon.com
Column Dave's Desk@Ditch

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: The Choice is Yours

Dave Davis
by Dave Davis There’s a phrase that I’ve offered countless times to others over the years that seems to be getting a lot of traction lately.  It goes as such: “You can’t change the other person or the things that happen, but you can change how you respond to them. The choice is yours.” The incomparable essayist, poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, wrote something along the same lines
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Column Dave's Desk@Ditch

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: An Endless Stream of Noise

Dave Davis
by Dave Davis For many of us, this point in time just might be the ‘noisiest’ we’ve ever experienced in our lives. So much to absorb. So much to process. So much to release. It’s a wonder we don’t find ourselves hiding under some enormous rock, waiting for the storm to finally pass.  Lately, it has me wondering: “What kind of coping mechanisms are folks implementing during this endless stream
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Column Dave's Desk@Ditch

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: Aging & The Flow of Life

Dave Davis
As readers of this column might know, due to an unexpected housing situation, much of my time this past month has been spent sifting through dozens of plastic bins stored in the basement.  They’re bins that literally contain the effects of a lifetime. It clearly was a task that I’d been putting off for quite some time, not really wanting to ‘go there’ until it was necessary. There’s a wonderful
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Column Dave's Desk@Ditch Recent

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: Bin There, Done That

Dave Davis
Have you ever accumulated so much ‘stuff’ that it literally seems to jump out and tackle you when opening up a closet door? Maybe you’ve assembled a shelving unit in your garage to accommodate decorations for every holiday and the various lawn accoutrements that correspond to each. Or, maybe you’re just like me, and literally have three dozen labelled bins stacked against a basement wall, which have not been opened
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Column Dave's Desk@Ditch Recent

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: Our Collective Consciousness

Dave Davis
by Dave Davis I must say, the response to last month’s column, “Loyal to Your Journey,” which highlighted the recently concluded cross-country ‘Walk for Peace,’ conducted by a group of venerable monks and their canine mascot, brought such warmth to my heart, that I felt compelled to parlay it into a somewhat related theme of ‘collective consciousness.’ I first came across the concept of collective consciousness decades ago, as an
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Bhikkhu Pannakara leading a group of Buddhist monks on the Walk for Peace in Greensboro, North Carolina on Jan. 19, 2026. |. Wikipedia Creative Commons
Column Dave's Desk@Ditch Photos Recent

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: Loyal to Your Journey

Dave Davis
by Dave Davis It seems that most folks that I’ve been speaking with lately find themselves in a place they never could have imagined. The issues, invariably, seem endless. So much to absorb, process, and hopefully release. Clearly, there may be the temptation to simply ignore what’s going on both externally and internally by losing oneself in some type of distraction or indulgence, but what I think is most needed
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Column Dave's Desk@Ditch Featured

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: My New Year’s ‘Conflict Resolution’

Dave Davis
As easy as it would be to throw out some sort of traditional resolution this time of year, I’m choosing to sit this one out.  Gone are the days of promising to lose ‘x’ number of pounds by a certain date, only to be frustrated when the numbers on the scale fall short of my ultimate goal. The only resolution that I see worth keeping is one that addresses conflicts. 
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Montauk Food Pantry volunteers (l-r) Andy Harris, Sally Richardson, Jackie Tyrell, Alice Houseknecht, Steve Byrne, Tara Coleman and Lorraine Kelly at the Nov. 9 run to benefit the food pantry. | Dave Davis photo
Column Dave's Desk@Ditch

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: A Concern for Others

Dave Davis
“When we enhance our sensitivity toward others’ suffering through deliberately opening ourselves up to it – it is believed that we can gradually extend out compassion to the point where the individual feels so moved by even the subtlest suffering of others that they come to have an overwhelming sense of responsibility toward those others.” Pictured Above: Montauk Food Pantry volunteers (l-r) Andy Harris, Sally Richardson, Jackie Tyrell, Alice Houseknecht,
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Column Dave's Desk@Ditch Featured

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: The Illusion of Separateness

Dave Davis
When you think of the word ‘separation,’ what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For some, it might be the division of two or more objects, each being placed into a different group based upon certain attributes. For others, it may represent a legal connotation; something that might take place prior to a more binding agreement. Then there are those who view the concept of separation as something that
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Column Dave's Desk@Ditch Featured

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: A Perpetual Sense of Incompletion

Dave Davis
by Dave Davis Recently, while scrolling through some interesting lectures online, I came across a talk that truly resonated with me. It was given by Alan Watts, one of the most influential philosopher/scholars of our time, in which he stated: “We are often taught from the earliest moments of our lives that something is missing. That we must strive, reach, chase, and become. That we must acquire a title, a
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Column Dave's Desk@Ditch

Dave’s Desk@Ditch: The Essence of Warriorship

Dave Davis
by Dave Davis "The discovery of basic goodness is not a religious experience, particularly. Rather it is the realization that we can directly experience and work with reality, the real world that we are in. When we feel that our lives are genuine and good, we do not have to deceive ourselves or other people. The essence of warriorship, or the essence of human bravery, is refusing to give up
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