Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit […] I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Tag: skating past death
Mine own and others; let’s just say I’m “medically interesting.”
Plague Haiku
THE PAIN IN MY CHEST Is growing by the hour. I hope it’s heartburn.
365 Names (sort of): The Fragility
“THIS IS WHY SOME PEOPLE drink,” I told my friend, provoking him into loud laughter. We were talking about THE FRAGILITY: that immediate realization of the tenuousness of life, and its property of drastically changing in a cold heartbeat through…
What I Really Want For My Birthday
ANOTHER BIRTHDAY.
Pithyism #+1
THANK GOD, OR THE GODS, or Fate, or Luck or Fortune or Purpose, or just feel grateful, that you still have one more thing to do.
Prayer
O One; Distant One, Dear One, Let me not be blind to the beauty and ugliness and truth that my eyes don’t see, and are as present as the scent among fields of lavender and the warm summer air on…
Rainy Day Equation
SEMI-FERAL CAT, PLUS FORCED CONFINEMENT, divided by ping-pong ball, equals nothing else.
Three Hard Things
Kicking a whale up a beach Braiding grape jelly Comforting the chronically afflicted. (1/22/09 P.S. to RW: who asked “Why would you kick a whale?” The only reason I can think of is that 1) he’s down, and 2) you’re…
Too Mellow to Die
It worries me somewhat that my friends and colleagues are more concerned than I am that I experienced my fourth cardioversion Sunday. “Experienced” is the wrong word. I experienced, and have a clear memory of, the 150 beats-per-minute irregular jangle…
Exploring Mind
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES THE EXPLORER FROM other humans is his answer to the following question: “If you could experience something that no one else ever had, but the cost was your own life, would it be worth it?”
eulogy
This is what I said about Jim at his funeral: When studying to be a rabbi, I learned a tradition that says one should begin every public discourse with a jest. So here?s Jim?s and my very favorite shared joke…