Month: January 2012

• January 7, 2012

  ‘I pray to lay my limbs in the ground as one who gladdened his fellow-citizens’

  The following is an excerpt from Pindar’s Nemea Ode 8. Pindar (ca. 518-438 BC) was a lyrical poet living during the Archaic Age in ancient Greece. The extant odes, apparently representing only a small part of his oeuvre, commemorate the victories of athletes from the Olympian, Pythian, Ishmian, and Nemean Games. Apart from the high…
• January 6, 2012

  How to play the rousing game of ‘getting to know someone you’ve never met’

  Moves in the Game You’re in the middle of a game that has only 3 moves. No more, no less. Until it chances upon a catchier name, the game shall be called “getting to know someone you’ve never met.” The goal of the game? Quite simply, to have an encounter with an acquaintance. An encounter…
• January 5, 2012

  ‘Are you done with that?’

  We have nearly forgotten what it’s like to take our time. Coffee comes pierced by a talon, is pulled down by a waterfall, is ready in less than a minute. It tastes like a hot gulp of brown. Daily, we are faced with the prospects of drinking big gulps, of chugging, of downing, or of…
• January 4, 2012

  ‘The nature of a good marriage is actually very simple’

  “Call no man blessed until he has died.” –Solon For about a year, I’ve been having weekly conversations over email with an older man. We’ve been talking about living and dying, literature and philosophy, ethics and science. He’s become someone whom I admire. During a recent exchanged, I asked him about the nature of a…
• January 3, 2012

  Seneca on our overindulgent habits of reading

  It may be time to rest after a day of writing like mad about Jane Austen. For me, Austen is hard. She flees from me, is overdemanding, is so smart that I can’t keep up. Every time I try to do her justice, I fail. I take some time away from her. In about a…