I haven’t seen the doctor. Snowpocalypso 2015 was suggesting a non-driving weekend, and they’d only want me to take a narcotic painkiller. I’m not so keen on the idea. The last time they suggested it, I was agreeable. But the pills did little for the first pain I was feeling, and also inspired a second—a… Read more »
Just in case you value such things, spoiler alert. Although what I have to say shouldn’t actually come as much of a surprise. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is an end-of-the-world movie in which the world actually ends. There are actually a number of complicated love stories in this romantic comedy… Read more »
Birdman. Michael Keaton, some other people you might have heard of. The trailers make it look really interesting, the story of a washed-up superhero who was never more than second-rate being dragged out of retirement by popular demand. That could be funny. Only that has nothing whatsoever with the movie. It’s really about a washed-up… Read more »
Photo by Christopher Michel. EDITOR’S NOTE: This post was written a few weeks before Scooby Doo aka Escobar Durango’s passing. My dog is dying. Right there in front of me, inch by inch at first and now yard by yard, my dog is dying. He’s 14 or 15, nobody can be sure because he came… Read more »
Rollo May asks this question: what is freedom? Freedom and Destiny is the answer at length, more like a dozen answers. It boils down to two things: what do you mean by freedom? And that which both opposes and enables destiny, its synonym and opposite. Lately, I have given up atheism as an identifier. It… Read more »
I’ll be 41 here in a minute, and around these times we mark out as indications of aging, I like to spend a few minutes reflecting. What does it all mean? This year, I’ve decided to think about the upsides of aging. Sure, there are downsides, but we can’t have everything. The occasional focus on… Read more »
The problem with saying yes to one thing is you are thereby saying no to everything else. Yalom makes this point at least 63 times in his writing. I made that number up because I am too lazy, really, to track down any or all of the times he said it. So, I picked a… Read more »
Human cognition is increasingly recognized as not that special among our animal cousins. Numerous demonstrations of other mammals and even birds capable of tool use, of language use, of empathy, and of a sense of fairness permeate the literature. Anyone who spends any time at all with their household pets must wonder at times what… Read more »
Illustration from Punch Magazine ca. 1870. The career market used to be open a little wider. Greed and politics are narrowing our options. As I struggle to find means to support my family and pay my student loans, people often reassure me that I am worth hiring and will eventually find the place where I… Read more »
Photo by Richard King. I heard it again, I don’t remember where: isn’t amazing how the Beach Boys could make all that beautiful, harmonious, uplifting music while their front man was so depressed? Wilson’s mental illness is legendary. The Barenaked Ladies famously penned a song about his breakdown: three years in bed gaining weight and… Read more »
