Category Archives: Romantic Love

My Father’s Continuing Funerary Cortege

Posted on June 23, 2020 by Abigail

My Father’s Continuing Funerary Cortege A country song comes to mind as I try to picture what reading the complete extant papers of my father has been like for me during these past weeks. There’s a long line of mourners … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Mysticism, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 10 commandments, 1920s-1970s, accepting Sinaitic law, accepting The Covenant, admirers, appreciative letters, Bobby Bare’s “Long Black Limousine”, challenge of being human, charisma, Columbia class of 1925, country song, deep levels of nature, depth of tradition, detachment, executrix, father-daughter relation, fear of God, funeral cortege, generous love, Henry M. Rosenthal, highbrow America, humble parishioners, imagination, incorruptibility, Israel at Sinai, knowing my father, letters from notables, literary estate, living culture, Louisville Kentucky, Moses, mourners, national opinion shapers, nearness to God, papers of Henry M. Rosenthal, personal magnetism, philosophy students, primeval chaos, risks of The Covenant, sermon, sermon on Mount Sinai, Shevuoth sermon 1941, still small voice, talking to God, tapping sources of being, the burden of being human, the fight to be human, the secret of a life, the secret of a man, thunder at Sinai, trained skill, voice at Sinai, voice of God, words of Sinaitic law, worldly success | Leave a comment

Touching Up Roots

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Abigail

Touching Up Roots Today, for the first time in my life, I’ve tried – with the help of the kit I sent for – to color my own hair. What’s the worst that could happen? I’ll come out looking like … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, 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, 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, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abraham and Sarah, Abraham’s bluff, ancestral roots, being a single woman, biblical couples, biblical eros, biblical ungallantry, Book of Numbers, coloring one’s hair, competing with God, cultural roots, demanding your rights, divine man/woman partnership, divine-human partnership, face-to-face lovemaking, father-daughter relation, feminism and Judaism, feminist protest, fight with my name on it, fighting human nature, fighting nature, fighting till I lose, fighting till I win, filial piety, God and romantic life, gray hair, Hebrew Bible, Henry M. Rosenthal, home hair color, Jacob and Rachel, Jewish roots, Judaism and women, letting nature take its course, Lot’s daughters, Lot’s guests, men rescuing women, monogamous passion, not my fight, passion for God, personal God, problematic biblical sources, Song of Songs, the Bible and women, the Bible's woman problem, the Pentateuch, the Torah, Thomas Cahill’s The Gift of the Jews, Torah Study, touching up roots, trial by ordeal, virtual bible study, woman’s coping strategies, women in peril, women of the Bible, women rescuing men | Leave a comment

My Latest Teaching Anxiety Dream

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Abigail

My Latest Teaching Anxiety Dream Last night I had a variant of the dream that visits many teachers in the pre-dawn hours. Short of taking a survey, I have yet to meet a teacher who’s never had this dream in … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", afterlife judgment, bad dream, Brooklyn Bridge, Catalan identity, Columbia University in the 1920s, conversational magic, cultural identities, cultural layers, demoralization, divorce stress, facing real world, fascinating parents, fear of public speaking, forgiver and forgiven, forgiving yourself, German-Jewish identity, God as life partner, high-stress situations, how I overcame forgiving myself, identity, insoluble dilemma, Jewish lineage, Jewish Theological Seminary, lack of armor, last judgment, Leo Bronstein, life review, life story, long story, Louisville Male High, loving parents, McGuffy’s Reader, medical stress, meeting one’s contradictions, narrative view, NDE, near death experience, New York at its heyday, New Yorker magazine, normal stress, overwhelming experiences, Oxford professors, parent-child relation, parenting, personal armageddon, personal collapse, philosophy dissertation, philosophy Ph.D., Rav Tsair, reproacher and reproached, Russian identity, self-undoing, sheltered childhood, Spanish identity, talking straight to children, teaching anxiety, teaching anxiety dream, teaching preparation, therapeutic jargon, vulnerability, Where was God?, Yankee identity | Leave a comment

If Our Time Could Speak

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Abigail

If Our Time Could Speak In recent columns, I’ve mentioned that for me The Plague has opened the time to read through the journals, correspondence and manuscripts, published and unpublished, of my late father, Henry M. Rosenthal, who was considered, … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, nineteenth-century, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 19th-century seriousness, 19th-century styles, A.E. Housman’s “With Rue My Heart is Laden”, addressing the future, ancient Rome, Archimedes, Authenticity, authenticity in the future, authenticity today, Being oneself, character-defining opinions, class genius, Columbia class of 1925, common peril, Covid-19 preventives, Covid-19 treatments, cultural boundary conditions, cultural limits, cultural parameters, deconstructionism, destabiliizing concepts, dissolving ethnic boundaries, dissolving historic boundaries, ethnic identity, father-daughter relation, filial piety, global cooperation, global research, group solidarity, group think, habit makes the monk, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal's "Time Speaking" 1945, imitating a statue, imitating an emperor, imperial pose, inherited differences, international antiviral research, lever principle, liberating lightness, lighten up, lightfoot lads and lasses, lightness of today, literary legacy, men in the 1940s, mental roller coaster, mores of the era, normality, pagan science, paganism, pan-human research, people of the future, place to stand, portraying one’s era, pre-feminist women, professed lightness, re-valuating values, religious identity, Roman emperor, Roman statue, saying what you mean, social construct, socially bestowed credentials, speaking from the future, speaking from the past, spirit of the time, standing one’s ground, statuesque pose, striking a pose, style of lightness, styles of normality, styles of the 1940s, styles of today, The Plague, unprecedented common effort, unpublished manuscript, vanished landmarks, women in the 1940s | Leave a comment

Another Door

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Abigail

Another Door After the death of my mother, I devoted long weeks to clearing my parents’ Manhattan apartment. It seemed the bitterest of times. All the tapestried layers, the complexities of them – the charm, the humor, the remarks that … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, Biblical God, Childhood, Cities, Class, Contemplation, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Immortality, Jews, life and death struggle, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, Ontology, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, social construction, Social Conventions, 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, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged clearing an apartment, Cold War experts, Communist regimes, condensed insights, death of father, death of mother, decoding the past, double meanings, Eastern Europe, end of communism, father-daughter relation, filial duty, last words, life journey, Maine Coast Memorial Hospital, mother/daughter relation, parting words, people smarts, personal effects, personal pre-history, plague diary, Polish pope, pope in Warsaw, Sovietologists, the past is not past, time of the plague, time out of time, Wittgensteinian understanding | 2 Comments

The Paranormal and Me

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Abigail

The Paranormal and Me If by “the paranormal” is meant the field of reality that comprises effects not linked to causes by any known physical laws — and if the missing links are likely found in consciousness – then the … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, books, bureaucracy, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Films, Freedom, Friendship, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Mysticism, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic nonreappointment, academic philosophers, academic politics, academic protocol, academic tenure, ambiguous evidence, anecdotal evidence, bad professional news, cause and effect, collegial ridicule, collegial shunning, conscious beings, consciousness, consciousness research, culture and the paranormal, dangers of psi, digging a well, dowser, dowser’s stick, emotional absence, emotional letdown, everyday experience, finding water, funding for research, funding for unpopular research, house in Maine, intellectual foundations, invisible force, known physical laws, medical candor, mediums who cheat, missing explanatory links, news bearer, nocebo effect, nonphysical causation, one of the boys, paradigm change, paranormal and fraud, physical laws, placebo effect, precognitive bad news, precognitive dreams, premonitions, present day physics, private life and paranormal, professional risk, psychic, psychic power, refuting instance, researching the paranormal, secrets of consciousness, significant coincidence, social death, Stephen E. Braude’s The Gold Leaf Lady: And Other Parapsychological Investigations, study of consciousness, the paranormal, the search for truth, unpopular hypothesis, unsupportive men, what everybody knows | 2 Comments

My Father’s Diaries

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Abigail

My Father’s Diaries In the wake of the pandemic presently sweeping our small planet, the train of projects I had is now stalled. As the fact of this frustration sank in, it came to me to turn to a task … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged action without expectation, aesthetic intelligence, archiving contemporary papers, Biblical characters, biblical frame, bodily awareness, co-religionists, Columbia University’s class of 1925, death explained, decoding philosophers, diaries, dream encounter, enigmatic brilliance, eye of the storm of history, father-daughter relation, filial piety, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal’s Consolations of Philosophy, Henry M. Rosenthal’s journals, intellectual diaries 1927-29, intellectual genius, intellectual journals, intellectuals of the ’20s, intellectuals of the ’30s, Jewish chosenness, Jewish co-religionists, Jewish identity, Jewish location in history, life problem, life problematic, moral intelligence, my father’s papers, pandemic, paternal legacy, personal uniqueness, philosopher’s daughter, plague refugees, posthumous publication, prayer guidance, private diaries, projects for the plague, reading character, self-recognition, self-reflection, sources of insight. Philosophic clarification, unfinished manuscripts | 2 Comments

Comprehending the Fate of Women

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Abigail

Comprehending the Fate of Women Alfred de Muset, the romantic French writer, wrote a play with the title, On ne badine pas avec l’amour, or in English, One Doesn’t Kid Around with Love. The heroine of this play speaks a … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 19th century novels, abusing women, actual v theoretical women, Alfred de Muset’s On ne badine pas avec l’amour, biological imperative, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", contraception and liberation, default position of women, defensive aggressiveness of women, desire and conquest, dynamic equilibrium of the sexes, educating women, egoistic weakness, egoistic willfulness, feminine power, groupthink, he had his way, le sort des femmes, male and female asymmetry, male dominance, male ego, male force, male self-command, masculine confusions, masculine nature, masculine will, modern clothes and liberation, Mr. Rochester, natural aggression, novelistic coincidences, perils of Jane Eyre, persuasive power, power-of-yielding, predicaments of women, protective love, public feminist, refrigerators and women, right to own property, right to vote, romantic French literature, self-sovereignty of women, self-supporting women, technology and women’s liberation, the fate of women, the private lives of public feminists, toxic masculinity, trust between women, unmanliness, vulnerability, what do women want?, women friends, women's vulnerability, women’s contingent freedom, women’s dignity | Leave a comment

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Abigail

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir Talk about a Power Couple! He is responsible for the 20th-century French Existentialist claims that life is absurd, God nonexistent, we create our identities and the values we give to our projects. And she? … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Literature, Love, Male Power, master, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, 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 not religious, status, status of women, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged acculturation, anti-nature, arbitrary life projects, aristocratic pretensions, École normale supérieure, beauty and ugliness, bourgeois values, Carol Seymour-Jones’ A Dangerous Liason, character formation, compensatory piety, constructed identity, contingency, cosmetic values, created identities, dowry, escaping poverty, everything is permitted, existential misjudgments, false aristocracy, female chastity, female nature, feminine submission, French aestheticism, French existentialism, God’s non-existence, good-looking Frenchmen, gratuitous act, human nature, human nothingness, inherited wealth, intellectuals and culture, invented identities, invented values, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea, lookism, making the best of circumstances, mariage de raison, marital failure, marrying for class, marrying for money, Merleau-Ponty, necessity and contingency, normaliens, Power couple, Sartre’s family, second wave feminism, self-invention, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, social class, social enchantment, social power, submissive womanhood, the Big Questions, the for-itself, the in-itself, the ugly kid, verbal brilliance, wealth and privilege, without God, womanizing husband, women's liberation, words as weapons | 1 Comment

The Death of a Friend

Posted on February 18, 2020 by Abigail

The Death of a Friend This week word came that my friend Shirley Kennedy had died. On the one hand, I was relieved for her. It was like hearing that a friend, unfairly imprisoned, had been set free. On the … Continue reading →

Posted in Afterlife, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Chivalry, Class, Contemplation, Cool, Courage, Culture, Desire, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, Faith, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Health, Heroes, hidden God, Ideality, Identity, Immortality, Jews, life and death struggle, Love, Memoir, memory, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, Ontology, Past and Future, Peace, politics of ideas, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a different woman, antebellum home, Back Bay Road, barrel racing, bodily failure, country friend, death as release, finding the true owners, G.I. Bride, home birth, horsemanship, humble gratitude, humble virtues, Jewish concerns, local historical society, local history, midwife, Milbridge Maine, Old Mainers, political extremism, post-war Germany, rodeo ribbons, selling the house you don’t own, Shirley Kennedy, sisterly feeling, the right of way, the shore strip, true friendship, understanding horses, Washington County, womanly arts, women friends | 2 Comments

	Abigail on The Old Account Was Settl…
	jerrymartin998419820 on The Old Account Was Settl…
	Abigail on Léo
	Abigail on Léo
	Francesca on Léo

Category Archives: Romantic Love

Never miss a post! "Dear Abbie" in your inbox is a click away.

Email Abbie!

We’re Social.

Recent Posts

Recent Comments and Replies

Archives

A picture is worth…

Follow Dear Abbie on Twitter!