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.”
The World’s Greatest Hiccough Cure
THIS METHOD OF QUIETING DIAPHRAGMATIC spasms was gifted to me by the remarkable Ann Autumn, one of my favorite teachers and a good person to have at your back. It is simply this: 1. Fill a glass with water. 2.…
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…
Tortured Gastronome
EVERY TIME ANTHONY BOURDAIN MAKES a reference on one of his TV shows to hanging himself in a shower stall, Ann and I swap meaningful looks. After all, that’s exactly how the 61-year-old chef, traveler, writer and raconteur ended up…
Getting Back to My Roots
I FIRST NOTICED SOMETHING WAS wrong when I felt the hole in my upper right bicuspid. I didn’t know at first that it was a hole; I was scraping off some potato-chip detritus when my fingernail dipped unexpectedly. I must…
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…