Category Archives: Memoir

Wickedness and Suffering

Posted on February 19, 2019 by Abigail

Wickedness and Suffering Does that heading about cover it? Eugene Ionesco, the brilliant Franco-Romanian playwright, wrote Tueur sans gages [Killer without wages], a play that opens with his characters marveling over the great neighborhood to which they feel fortunate to … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a beautiful neighborhood, alligator attack, anti-Zionism, autobiographical book, C-Span, career pinnacle, coping with grief, delegitimation of Israel, dystopia, earthly paradise, Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels’ Why Religion? A Personal Story, enlightenment ideals, Eugene Ionesco, fear and denial, fleeing for one’s life, fragile heart, Franco-Romanian playwright, genocidal preparations, God’s grief, God’s master plan, God’s suffering, green card, haves and have nots, Helen Zia’s Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution, hiking accident, human fragility, ideal places, immigration benefits, immigration dangers, Ionesco’s Killer without wages, Ionesco’s Tueur sans gages, losing America, love at risk, mad killer, moral equations, moral equations unbalanced, opportunistic progressives, perfecting the world, plight of refugees, political narratives, power of unreason, problem of evil, refugees worldwide, repairing the world, selective reporting, sheep and wolves, successes and losses, suffering and malice, suffering in nature, the beautiful people, The New York Review of Books, the suffering world, the world’s grief, true love, un beau quartier, utopian community, virtue signaling, wickedness in man, world-shattering grief | Leave a comment

Men on the Timeline

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Abigail

Men on the Timeline The other night I was at the Franco-Tunisian café where I go to get some of my writing done. A sizeable group had taken one side of the section where I found a round table. They … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bigotry, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged #metoo, a false life, artists under communism, award-winning films, believing in nothing, believing propaganda, black and white film, breaking faith, cafe eavesdropping, chivalry, classy cafe, communism v capitalism, communist-ruled Poland, condescension, deflecting advances, enabling sexism, escape to Paris, feminist preoccupations, foreign films, France, Franco-Tunisian cafe, grotesque sexism, heaven protect the working girl, high-end customers, human interconnectedness, ideality in men, ideology, inauthenticity, Iron Curtain, le coup de foudre, local diner, loss of faith, loss of trust, love without history, male protectiveness, male pushback, male revenge, manipulativeness, men who can cry, men’s new roles, night on the town, nihilism, out of line remarks, outmoded sexism, Paris, Parisian memories, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, permission to protest, Poland, Polish films, positive male role models, power advantage, pre-feminist days, pretended feminists, psychic interconnectedness, put downs, realistic men, redefining women, redefining women’s lives, reliable men, restaurant eavesdropping, romantic films, sensitivity training, sexist backlash, shared world, the French erotic model, the law of the brute, the party line, Tristan and Isolde, tunnel vision, uncalled for remarks, Upper Bohemia, what women want, women sharing a secret, women’s assertiveness, women’s self-definition, writers at cafes | Leave a comment

Normal?

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Abigail

Normal? There were many things I wanted to be when I grew up, but one of them was NORMAL. Since the counter-culture hadn’t yet come to public notice, normal was the only option offered to young girls at that time. … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute freedom and terror, Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged absolutely normal, abuse and harassment therapy, acupuncture, adventures and misadventures, body language, camel hair coats, category mistake, Chinese Herbal treatment, college co-eds, college romance, cultural expectations, cultural norms, culture and counterculture, defensible life, dream verdict, dream vision, equine coach, experiments with truth, featureless normality, French womanly wisdom, horse sense, horse talk, ideals for young girls, inhabiting one’s body, inhabiting one’s intentions, massage therapy, Me Too, medical checkup, movie stars, Normal, normality, norms, other-directedness, peripheral neuropathy, personal repair, pretended adoration, primary care physician, Princeton town, Princeton University, public approval, qualitative norms, realized intentions, Smith girls, social kiss of death, statistical averages, wisdom figure | Leave a comment

Our Twentieth Wedding Anniversary

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Abigail

Our Twentieth Wedding Anniversary Today, the twentieth of January, is the actual day of our 20th wedding anniversary, though we had our celebratory dinner last Friday, after seeing the James Baldwin movie, “If Beale Street Could Talk.” At the restaurant, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academe, Action, Anthropology, Art of Living, beauty, Biblical God, books, Chivalry, Cities, Class, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, novels, Ontology, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, secular, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic criteria, academic dissenter, academic fights, anniversary, attraction of opposites, avoiding fights, “If Beale Street Could Talk”, black ex-patriot writers, boringly normal, bracketing attachments, bracketing the natural attitude, celebratory dinner, collegial rivalry, contemplation of essences, cri de coeur, defining projects, desire to know, dodging fights, Edmund Husserl, emotional defenses, emotional intelligence, falling in love, falling out of love, fight to the finish, fight with my name on it, James Baldwin, knowing one is in love, life risks, life summersault, life-changing summons, literary cri de coeur, love and courage, male ego, marital adjustments, marital real life, Marriage, movie goers, movie reviews, nostalgia, outing someone, Patrick Moynihan, personnel decisions, phenomenological reduction, political firing, political strategizing, queer and black, religious experience, religious summons, restaurant noise, Richard Wright, risking sacred things, romantic courage, romantic idealization, romantic while black, sacred things, saving Brooklyn College, sharing a world, sharing values, the marital adventure, the meaning of marriage, the right wife, vital things, wedding anniversary, womanly skills, writer’s rivalry, yearning | 2 Comments

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Posted on January 15, 2019 by Abigail

Now You See It, Now You Don’t Last night I watched Renique Allen being interviewed on C-Span about her book, It Was All a Dream: A New Generation Confronts the Broken Promises to Black Americans I was utterly riveted by … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, TV, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged American origins, American West, being black, Biblical covenant, biblical Israel, biblical Israel and its neighbors, biblical narratives, black culture in the South, black incarceration, C-Span interview, Chaim N. Saiman’s Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law, communal consensus, dating pool, defacing the divine image, defending the Shekinah, defense of the feminine, demoralized men, divine feminine, Divine Presence, eligible black men, eligible men, erotic color lines, erotic predicament, erotic problematic in minority communities, explaining the Exile, Idolatry, Jehudim, Jewish survival, Lakota princess, Lakota warrior, love after lockup, millennials, models for healthy relationships, murder, Native American culture, parental couple, portable laws, promised land, rabbinic Judaism, racial bottleneck, refusal to compromise, relationship training, Renique Allen’s It Was All a Dream: A New Generation Confronts the Broken Promises to Black Americans, residential segregation, reverse migration, segregation in the North, self-revelation, sexual immorality, shared history, Shekinah, sin as an explanation, single parent homes, social grouping, social segregation, strategic vulnerability, the American South, the divine image, the First Exile, the Jewish assignment in history, the Mayflower, the religion of Israel, the Sanhedrin, the Second Exile, unfair imprisonment, unfair sentencing, what the hell it’s home, white liberals, white radicals, woman’s place in Israel, woman’s place in Judaism | Leave a comment

The Feminine Honor

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Abigail

The Feminine Honor My recent “Me Too” experience now appears to be winding to its close with the moral fundamentals suitably restored. Since I’m a city kid, with street smarts, who had reason to believe that her life skills were … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Autonomy, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Poetry, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Time, TV, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a fight with your name on it, Alfred de Musset’s Les Caprices de Marianne, anti-slavery, chivalrous sentiments, chivalry, chivalry ridiculed, disrespect for women, Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, equal pay for equal work, feminine honor, feminist friends, first rodeo, getting thrown, ignoble conduct, le sort des femmes, manliness, Marie Antoinette the English and the French, Me Too, Me Too Movement, moral basis, moral combat, moral fundamentals, moral order, noble conduct, political combat, political war wounds, repairing the world, right to drive, right to vote, saving the environment, the destiny of women, the Free French, the Haganah, the Spanish Republic, Theatre national populaire, thwarted chivalry, TNP, unworthy conduct, women’s fate, world wide slavery | Leave a comment

At a Loss

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Abigail

At a Loss Friends and readers of this column, I am really at a loss. I don’t know what to say as a woman, and I don’t know what to do as a woman. Let me at least tell … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a good life, a woman’s honor, a woman’s options, a woman’s voice, Abraham and Sarah, abusing a woman, atonement, being guilty, Bible study, blaming the victim, brazen response, Bullying, chronological living, counter-accusation, covenantal lineage, Day of Atonement, defeating a woman, defending men, defending women, discounting evidence, distance healing, dominating, email harassment, energy healing, evading the present, facing one’s time, facing the day, fake psychic, false accusations, false piety, feeling guilty, feminine being, feminine presence, femininity defeated, finding community, finding one’s footing, fraudulent spirituality, friendship, grounding one’s life, harassment, human dramas, inverting victimizer/victim relation, knee injury, liberated woman, life’s timeline, lived time, male gallantry, male projects, manipulative claims, men defending women, moral combat, no means no, nostalgia, not as advertised, one’s natural place, online friends, Paper trail, perfectionism, phony healers, prayer healing, predator, pretended atonement, preying on the vulnerable, promise breaking, pseudo-spirituality, purported healer, Rachel and Leah, Rebecca and Isaac, religious charlatans, religious community, religious fraud, respect for women, seduction, self-defense, sexual abuse, spiritual healing, spiritual integrity, stabilities of place, taking advantage, targeting the vulnerable, temporality rejected, the birthright, the Jewish assignment, Torah Study, trouble maker, truth in advertising, truthful witness, unwanted advances, valid complaint, victimizer, virtual spaces, vulnerability, women defending men, women’s biblical assignment, Yom Kippur | 6 Comments

	Abigail on Male Gallantry
	Johan Herrenberg on Male Gallantry
	Abigail on Our Twentieth Wedding An…
	Johan Herrenberg on Our Twentieth Wedding An…
	Abigail on At a Loss

Category Archives: Memoir

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