It will be strange, this afternoon, to sit down to turkey for two. We will miss the kids and grandkids—though, like many others, we will spend time on Facebook and Zoom with them. But we will light the candles, carve the turkey, serve out stuffing and cranberry sauce (two kinds, by way of marital accommodation), … Read More
This week, I have a guest blogger–my good friend Brian Fay. He’s a retired professor of philosophy at Wesleyan University, a thoughtful guy, and a good buddy. He talks about paying attention to our souls (our basic attitudes or orientations toward life, reality, and the universe) and “gerotranscendence” (which, to Brian, definitely doesn’t mean leaping … Read More
When I was growing up in the southern Midwest, our house had no air conditioning. Most people didn’t mind the heat too much—at least until that week in August when it would get oven hot. During that week, we often had two-shower days. Yesterday, when the temperature plummeted, the rain fell relentlessly, and the clouds … Read More
This crazy election week is a good time to be thinking about the Tao Te Ching. The Tao is a classic of early Chinese spirituality , an elusive, lyrical meditation on how to live in dark and dangerous times. Unlike Confucian thinking, which emphasizes social order (with its reliance on law, stability, and hierarchy), the … Read More