Month: May 2013

• May 29, 2013

  Last day in Appalachia

  Last day in Appalachia. Mountain birds, tall grasses, more horses. Sing something, will you? Sing of a feather clinging to a window? Of the nights spent tossing words into the fire? Of the mornings spent meditating in calm? Of two young deer headed, in late spring, up the driveway? Looking young and perplexed, the pair…
• May 28, 2013

  Marx’s error and our own

  Final days in Appalachia. Reminder of Marx’s error, of ours since Francis Bacon. Tao Te Ching 29 (Feng and English translation): ‘Do you think you can conquer the universe and improve it? / I do not believe this can be done.’ The second stanza unearths the source of our error. ‘The universe is sacred. / You cannot improve it.…
• May 27, 2013

  A felicitous realization about recurrence and impermanence

  Final days in Appalachia. A felicitous realization. So long as we live, each day will recur, varying only slightly from the last. We will work and rest, eat and sleep, think and speak. We will incline or be supine; sit down or get up; touch or be touched; be around others or be alone. As…
• May 25, 2013

  Talitha Stevenson’s ‘Mind field’: A synoptic review of DSM-5

  ‘Mind Field,’ a short review published in the Financial Times on May 24, 2013, seems to me the most succinct, insightful review of Diagnostic Statistical Manual-5 to date. In well under 1000 words, Talitha Stevenson points out the limitations of DSM. My summary of her points runs as follows: 1. That the DSM seeks to make a firm, clean distinction…
• May 24, 2013

  Becoming radiant is hard, being radiant is easy

  You write that ‘radiance is virtue manifested in the keys of natural eloquence, graceful action, and a gentle demeanor…’ So, does radiance consist of three different things that, once combined, make up a whole, or are these three names for the same thing?  The latter. Radiance is not a part:whole relationship (fingers:hand) or an arithmetic…