Tag: Attention

• December 13, 2012

  Of tree climbing and tree-hugging

  In this corner of rural Pennsylvania, there are no rocks to climb. But there are trees to sit near the top of. Beyond prospects and horizons, tree climbing presents feels. A lot of back stepping, open hands, heel hooks, and mantling. Some lines of bark running in north-south pinches. Some textures like dried coral. You go…
• April 12, 2012

  ‘Why not me? Why not now’: On the collective loss of ethical life

  My good friend Jennifer has shared with me her philosophically rich personal essay, “Attention” (forthcoming). In “Attention,” she relates that she is traveling by train from Detroit to Chicago. Not far into the trip, the train stops abruptly. The passengers are informed that a man has stepped in front of the train that had been…
• March 10, 2012

  On the value of paying attention: An excerpt from Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead

  The following is an excerpt from Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead (New York: FSG, 2004), pp. 28-9. The narrator, Reverend John Ames, is 76-years-old and dying. As his final word, he has decided to write a letter to his 7-year-old son. The year is 1956. In the excerpt below, he refers to Feuerbach, a prominent atheist living during…
• March 3, 2012

  Of parabolas, East of Eden, and biting philosophies

  A scene: Late afternoon at the playground. A boy, towheaded, with eyes the color of turquoise, and a man, early 30s, with pelo dorado and eyes of wolf-blue. Green jacket against green tire swing against red corduroy pants. The man pushes the boy at regular intervals. The boy’s eyes draw a parabola on the way out,…