Not thinking too clearly today. Last night another person I was acquainted with died. Yesterday I mentioned that a former colleague of mine took his own life, even though he was a religious person. The idea of death itself isn’t on my mind as much as the changing landscape that accompanies it. The fact that […]
Over the past few days and weeks, end-of-life issues have surrounded me. A wonderful blogger friend of mine is having problems; on my wife’s side of the family, several of her relatives are gravely ill and not expected to live very long; a former colleague of mine took his own life just a few days […]
I was greatly impressed by a recent book, Out of Our Heads, by Alva Noë, who presents a different way to look at consciousness. He believes that current approaches to the question of consciousness are wrongheaded: instead of looking for consciousness as arising inside a person’s head, it is a result of interaction of with […]
Beautiful summer twilights depress the hell out of me. The same holds true about beautiful music by Bach, Hayden, Mozart and other great composers. I think it is the fact that these things are so beautiful is depressing me. The summer day at about 4:30 to 6:00 to me, represents death. I guess to the […]
Part of my inspiration for posting this today is the blog post from Osiris Ramos (http://osirisramos.wordpress.com/): I Would Like to be Old (posted 8-23-12). A chat with Mom I started writing this post a few days ago after speaking with Mom. In fact the title of this post is a direct quote from her. Defeat […]
I was looking though some pictures today. (No surprise there, I’m either looking through old pictures, old writings, old… doesn’t-matter-what as long as it’s old and in my past.) I have boxes and boxes of photos of my big brother Mike. He is autistic, low functioning and has never spoken. I don’t even know what […]
Have any of you ever been embarrassed by your family? I’m reminded of this by encounters with current teenagers with whom I have had engaged in substantive and fulfilling conversations prior to entry into their years of double digits. I was embarrassed way before my teen age years. Previous posts about my older brother should give […]
[Note: Back to personal archives for this post.] Mom took me to the this man when I was young. I realize now, he must have been a doctor. I was feeling sad. We were in a sunlit room, I remember that the chairs and tables were low, even though I was small then. Mom left me […]
Youth When I was a kid, Mom and Dad thought I needed a vacation. Maybe they thought I could use a break from my autistic brother Mike. My aunt and uncle had a bungalow in Rockaway (New York). My cousins would be there and Grandma too. There would be the beach and the waves of […]
Arrival We arrived very late. I appreciated the humor of the Southwest Airlines crew, but I am glad that it was a relatively short flight. I had traveled the New Jersey Turnpike to where my mother lived, many times before, but rarely in the dead of night, and even more rarely in a cab or […]
