From The Way of Zen by Alan Watts (which I find myself re-reading and re-reading for fuller comprehension): We learn, very thoroughly though far less explicitly, to identify ourselves with an equally conventional view of “myself.” For the conventional “self” or … Continue reading
I’ve been keeping a journal off and on ever since I was about 12 years old. The earliest journals, written in hand, survive. During high school, for a brief period, I switched to disk, and promptly lost every disk by … Continue reading
From The Way of Zen by Alan Watts: It was a basic Confucian principle that “it is man who makes truth great, not truth which makes man great.” For this reason, “humanness” or “human-heartedness” was always felt to be superior to … Continue reading
From “Letting Go” by Atul Gawande in The New Yorker (August 2, 2010): Almost all these patients had known, for some time, that they had a terminal condition. Yet they—along with their doctors—were unprepared for the final stage. … Surveys … Continue reading
In early 2007 I had the following dream: I went to Hell—without a fight. I walked down a long and dark corridor with many others, with my (then) husband next to me. Suddenly the corridor opened up onto a square … Continue reading
When my husband and I divorced, we went the DIY route. He ordered legal templates from a website, filled in the blanks, and sent it to the court. A date was set, and we agreed to meet at the courthouse … Continue reading
In the same way countries have anthems, my life has an anthem. I discovered it my junior year at the Indiana Academy, where I lived 4 hours away from home at the age of fifteen. I’d never been more happy. It’s … Continue reading