I wanted to write on the volatility of memory at age 71 — a subject of considerable interest to myself and my spouse — and searched my computer’s hard drive for previous musings on the subject.
Articles from May 2023
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The imperfect is our paradise
“Perhaps we are here only to say: House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate,” says the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He continues: “But to say them…oh, to say them more intensely than the Things themselves ever dreamed of being.”
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Hope
As a Catholic (adjective) ex-Catholic (noun), I should take note of Pope Benedict XVI’s [2007] encyclical, Spe Salvi (“in hope we are saved”), his second, a document which has things to say about science.
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Pushing drugs
Two people I’d be happy to never see in the media again: Robert Bazell and Robert Jarvik.
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Skyhooks and cranes
Some one-word titles in the psychology section of the library: Solitude, Compassion, Self-hate, Laughter, Jealousy, Regret, Shame, Prejudice, Violence, Anger, Embarrassment. And that’s just for starters.
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For the love of books
In the first year of my married life, I visited with my wife, a teacher, the home of one of her students in Los Angeles, California.
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On one’s knees in dewy grass
Here is the crucial moment in Francis Collins’ book, “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence of Belief,” often offered as a antidote to Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion.”
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The uncommon commonplace
Writing recently about the Perseid meteor shower of August reminded me of one of the most vigorous showers I have witnessed, the one I wrote about in the first chapter of “Honey From Stone.”
The Brontë Sisters, Anne, Emily, and Charlotte, painted by their brother Branwell (c. 1834)
Vile bodies, immortal souls
On the 29th of December, 1836, Charlotte Brontë, twenty years old, posted some of her poems to the Poet Laureate of England Robert Southey, hoping for encouragement. Three months later, the great man replied, putting the “flighty” girl in her place.