Tag: skating past death

Mine own and others; let’s just say I’m “medically interesting.”

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

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…

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…