Author: Andrew Taggart
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Managing chronic pain
In a recent blog, the Buddhist physician Alex Lickerman suggests 3 ways for managing chronic pain: Holding (my reference to D.W. Winnicott): the one staying with the other, committing himself to the face-to-face. Distracting: the self learning spiritual exercises for turning away from pain’s aversiveness? Meditating: the focused attention on thoughts rather than on affects.
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Kathryn Schulz on being wrong
— I’d like to clarify Schulz’s otherwise fine lecture on the virtue of fallibility (I err, therefore I am). First, let’s distinguish between being wrong and going wrong. Being wrong entails self-loathing whereas going wrong suggests an error or lapse in judgment. The same goes for being right and heading in the right direction. The former is self-righteousness,…
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The Parable of the Talents
There are a few errors commonly made when people speak about the Parable of the Talents. The Parable naturally lends itself to misinterpretation in terms of quantitative comparison. The first man is given 5 talents, the second man 2 talents, and the third man 1 talent. We are thus tempted to evaluate the talents according to…
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On the saying, “Don’t take any wooden nickels”
When we were about to leave my grandparents’ house, my Grandpa Dunkel used to say, “Don’t take any wooden nickels.” Even though there is no general consensus among linguists regarding the provenance of the expression, its connotation is clear enough: Beware of cheaters and con artists. Keep your eyes open because you’re about to step…
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Money Money Money!; or, That Great Unthinking Life of the Writer (Part 2)
Part 2 of the series at Big Other. Enjoy.
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 