Tag Archives: cynicism
The Horse Knows
The Horse Knows As a child, I regarded animals as people. Particularly large animals, like the big dog that followed me around when we were at Hilltop, the bungalow colony in New Jersey where my family spent summers. They looked … Continue reading
Posted in action, art of living, beauty, books, childhood, contemplation, cool, courage, culture, desire, erotic life, eternity, ethics, faith, femininity, films, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, literature, love, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, power, presence, psychology, public facade, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romanticism, self-deception, sexuality, social climbing, 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, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged adult insincerity, animal ethology, animal intelligence, animal/human relations, animals are people, canine affection, caregiver’s stress, caregiver’s symptoms, cat lovers, childhood, children’s books, coping strategies, cynicism, denial syndrome, dog lovers, Epistemology, Equine Gestalt Coaching Method, Gestalt Therapy, getting thrown, horse as friend, horse knowledge, horse perceptiveness, horse sense, horse therapy, human tears, illustrated books, integrity, intelligibility, Joan Summers, kid stuff, lead mare, Mowgli, Mowgli’s friends, pets are people, philosophy teacher, relativism, Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, self evidence, self-deception, self-discovery, skepticism, soul-deadening, Step Into Joy Healing Arts, super-educated
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For Rabbi Delcau, July 8th, 2016
For Rabbi Delcau, July 8th, 2016 Looking back over our four years with Rabbi Delcau, here are some sides of his presence that will always stand out for me. He has been a font of faith in this temple. If … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, heroes, hidden God, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, Jews, legal responsibility, literature, love, martyrdom, masculinity, memory, modernism, mortality, mysticism, non-violence, past and future, peace, political, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, self-deception, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged advocate for Israel, argument from design, balancing books, BDS, Boycott Sanction and Divestment, burning bush, contagion of cynicism, contagion of faith, contagion of pessimism, cynicism, debating Israel, defending Israel, dialogue with God, emotional distance, emotional presence, facing facts, facing the music, Faith, fear and Jews, for such a time as this, God of Israel, God's call, God's micromanaging, gratitude, Hashem, hostile questions, hostility to Israel, insolvency, Israel as home, keeping accounts, moral accounting, Mordecai and Ester, Moses, Moses in Midian, natural faith, pessimism, Presbyterian BDS, proof of God, providence, Rabbi Mitchell Delcau, rabbinic mission, reaping what you sow, Reform Judaism, resentment, speaking to God, Synagogue finances, temple search committee, terror and Jews, The Name, Torah Study, unselfconscious religion
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Looking Out for Number One
Looking Out for Number One Quoted in full, Rabbi Hillel’s famous saying goes like this: If I am not for myself, who will be? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? Though … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art, autonomy, Christianity, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, health, identity, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Jews, life and death struggle, love, memoir, modernism, mortality, mysticism, non-violence, peace, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, Uncategorized, Zeitgeist
Tagged alternative treatments, baptism, bereavement, Bucks County, cancer standard of care, charity, Christianity, conversion ceremony, conversions, cynicism, death, distractions, Downeast Maine, egoism, farewells, friendship, funerals, grief, horseback riding, indifference, intimacy, Jewish sages, Judaism, life and death, memorials, mikvah, mitzvot, mortal illness, mourning, number one, obsequies, opportunism, personal presence, personal relations, purity, Rabbi Hillel, rabbinic wisdom, religious affiliation, religious conversion, religious obligation, sages of antiquity, selfishness, Shekinah, sickness and health, social defenses, social facade, social static, solipsism, temple congregation, Valery Rybakow, Weltanschauug, worldview
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“Cynicism”
“Cynicism” The other day a young woman I know, an artist and philosopher who picks up a dollar working at the cafe I frequent, said to me that some of the people she meets act so deplorably that she’s getting … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, memoir, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "don't sweat the small stuff", absurdity, anomie, anxiety, apathy, arbitrariness, bad arguments, bad people, civilizational purposes, creativity, crisis, cynicism, disappointment, displacement, ennui, expectations, fairy tales, Faith, fear, Femininity, globalism, hatred, heartbreak, humankind, identity, insulation, introspection, meaninglessness, memoir, misanthropy, misology, motivation, normality, official story, personal narrative, philosophic crisis, projection, pseudo-profundities, purpose, reason, repression, self review, sensitivity, social construction, Socrates, stipulative meanings, tenderness, The Phaedo, The Princess and the Pea, tough-minded, toughness, truth, women's liberation, youth
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“Dante’s Lovers”
“Dante’s Lovers” There is a circle of hell, not very far down but definitely under the white line of redemption, where Dante places a certain species of doomed lover. There the enchanted couples pursue each other and, it seems, are … Continue reading
Posted in alienation, chivalry, courtship, culture, desire, erotic life, evil, faith, femininity, gender balance, guilt and innocence, identity, idolatry, literature, love, male power, memoir, poetry, power, psychology, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, slave, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, Zeitgeist
Tagged "getting religion", "Lydia", "Now Voyager", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", addiction, attraction, Bette Davis, blind devotion, courtship, cynicism, Dante, doomed lovers, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, fulfillment, hell, hope, idyll, infatuation, John Keats, longing, lust, Merle Oberon, projection, romantic fantasy, sacrificial love, scorned lovers, second circle, seduction, self-deception, tease, unrequited love
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“Atheism”
“Atheism” I’m not an atheist at present, but I’ve been one. So, why did I go there and why, eventually, did I turn back? I can tell you one thing: life is very different for the atheist from what it … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, culture, faith, nineteenth-century, philosophy, political
Tagged Atheism, Caspar David Friedrich, conversion, cynicism, failure, Faith, German Romanticism, God, gods, hope, intimacy, Ockham's razor, prayer, problem-solving, religion, self-realization, theism, theology, tragic sense
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