What is it that makes us not want to be alone – at least, not all the time? The poet William Cowper put the question this way some 300 years ago: How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!But grant me still a friend in my retreat,Whom I may whisper—solitude is sweet. Not that there is […]
There are many ways of dealing with an obstacle in your path. You can try to get around it, under it, or even through it. If worse comes to worst, you may have to negotiate with it. But the option our culture seems to prefer is to get over it. The trouble, in this welter […]
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Much of our basic technology has to do with attaching things. Of course, in the new world of computers, documents can be made to stay together by a very simple command, like “Attach.” But in the world behind those electronic frontiers, the world of actual Things, it was – and still is – not quite […]
In a once-popular song, written in 1935 and attributed to Billie Holiday, these words occur: “You came, you saw, you conquered me.” I doubt very much if whoever wrote the lyrics realized that they were quoting, or misquoting, a message originally said to have been written, 2,000 years earlier, by none other than Julius Caesar. […]
Among the many books my wife had brought back from her travels, which I’d never looked at until recently, was one I thought I might enjoy. It is a supposedly amusing collection of signs and other short messages written in English by Japanese people not totally familiar with our language. But I did not find […]
You have probably heard it said that “Confession is good for the soul.” I myself don’t have much to confess nowadays – but in my “growing up” years, I had tremendous feelings of guilt, especially in connection with sex – and particularly masturbation. When a psychiatrist I went to asked me about it, I actually […]
What is it about the human psyche that makes so many of us want to collect things? Does it go back to our animal ancestry, in which many creatures’ survival depended on their collecting materials to eat, or from which to construct their homes? Maybe, but I think it also reflects our very human desire […]
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (2nd Edition), there are several different versions of the last words of William Pitt (1759-1806), one of the greatest British statesmen. One version is “Oh my country! How I love my country!” Another is “Oh my country! How I leave my country!” A third version quotes the words […]
Only once has my heart been broken – but don’t ask me for details – not here, anyway – and in any case, it’s only a metaphor. The human heart is a very strong organ. When it fails, the cause is rarely disappointed love. Ask any cardiologist. Bones are another matter. They can withstand any […]
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As we know from cave paintings, humans from earliest times seem to have always had an innate urge to make marks with whatever materials, and on whatever surfaces, were available. Outside of caves, it was stones, trees, or bones which presented themselves as the most “natural” surfaces. After writing was invented, it was possible to […]
No, it’s not an oxymoron – though it almost sounds like it. We tend to associate the making of a will with thoughts about what is to happen after we are no longer around – i.e. when we are not living. But the “living will” is apparently a new concept in jurisprudence and in medicine. […]
Recently a lady whose opinions I respect happened to see one of my epigrams, which says, “Just when I nearly had the answer – I forgot the question.” To me, this was simply a short, funny thought – but to her, it immediately brought to mind some of her “patients” or “clients,” who are afflicted […]
What’s remarkable about human conflicts – even very nasty ones – is that they usually do get settled, one way or another. Here are some ways this can happen: By overwhelming force (war).By negotiation and compromise.By some kind of payment or reparations.By legal process, i.e., “going to court.”By persuasion.By agreed-upon arbitration.By intervention on the part […]
Considering that we have only ten numerical digits and twenty-six alphabetical letters, it’s remarkable that so much use can be made of them without our having to invent any more. Actually, the trend seems to be in the other direction, with more and more of the numerical work being done by ones and zeros, and […]
