Category: meditation

• February 12, 2011

  On the ‘repeal of reticence’

  Rochelle Gurstein’s thoughts about the “repeal of reticence” have been swimming around in my head for months now. How could it be that we have become accustomed to sharing all our thoughts, desires, wishes, and fantasies with total strangers? And how did it come about that exposing the private lives of political figures could be…
• February 11, 2011

  So far, I don’t mind aging…

  So far, I don’t mind aging. I still have my health. No major injuries to report. No illnesses of which I’m aware (mental illness?). Nothing chronic yet. But then I don’t have health care. Haven’t had it for 8 years. (Has it been that long?) I’m sure the illnesses and injuries and catastrophes are all…
• February 8, 2011

  Chuck Close on resilience

  In the 3rd segment of “Seeing and Perceiving,” an episode that aired recently on the radio program To the Best of Our Knowledge, the painter Chuck Close discusses his life in painting. In the interview, Close speaks candidly and Stoically about the spinal artery collapse that, in 1988, left him almost completely paralyzed. Since then,…
• February 7, 2011

  On forgiveness

  The way of resentment His mother’s voice, the sound of it, he could hardly bear without holding a cup of chamomile tea in both his hands. His mother seemed unconcerned with much save the coupons she had clipped out of the Sunday paper. Some she would use to reline the pantry wall with green beans…
• February 6, 2011

  Not a madman but Gilbert and Sullivan

  It’s warm in bed, and the floorboards are cold. The radiator is clicking in the darkness. Morning is here but in name only or, rather, only if one follows clock time. But should one? No, that question’s too far along and–too intellectual, too third-personal. Come back to me, this place, this moment of hesitation. Don’t…