Category: philosophical counseling
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An invitation to the reader to join me in a philosophical conversation
A Cordial Invitation I’d like to invite you to have a philosophical conversation with me. If you’re living outside of New York City, then the conversation would take place over Skype. If you’re in the City, then we’d take a stroll through Central Park. The economy we’d be engaged in would be a gift economy.…
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Friday meditation: Rumi’s ‘What’s Not Here’
What’s Not Here Rumi (1207-73) I started out on this road, call it love or emptiness. I only know what’s not here: resentment seeds, back- scratching greed, worrying about out- outcome, fear of people. When a bird gets free, it doesn’t go back for remnant left on the bottom of the cage!…
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Wendell Berry on the proper education for young people
The following is an excerpt from Wendell Berry’s “Thoughts in the Presence of Fear,” Orion Magazine (Autumn 2001). The article was published shortly after September 11, 2001. As far as I can make it, we have made little progress on devising a “proper education [that] enables young people to put their lives in order.” My friends and…
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On book dedications and patronage models: A very brief modern history
“Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.” –Dr. Johnson, Dictionary (1755) — Elizabethan Age: My dearest Baroness, You’re exquisite, but you know this already. Here are some sonnets. Your lowly servant. Victorian Age: To my bourgie reader, A page-turner, the first volume, here in your…
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I’ll play your body if you play mine: An existential dialogue (Work in progess)
Yesterday I had a remarkable conversation with Martyn Clark. Among many other things, he’s working on a year-long project loosely called “40 years, 40 collaborations.” After our conversation, he recorded his initial reply. It’s a moving 4-minute piano improvisation that damn-near too my breath away. As I listened to Martyn’s reply and thought back over our…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 