Tag Archives: happy endings
Our Twenty-Fourth Anniversary
As of last Friday, Jerry and I have been married for twenty-four years. By the time we met, neither of us expected to meet our true love – Mr. and Ms. Right – much less meet the way we did. … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, 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, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's A Good Look at Evil, academic excellence, acting on principle, analytic and continental philosophy, Brooklyn College, chance and providence, college administration, collegial conversation, commuting marriage, defending principles, defending who one is, destruction of the second temple, fact and fiction, faculty vote, failed marriage, fighting the good fight, Finding Mr. Right, giving up personal life, God makes divorces, God makes marriages, Graduate Center of CUNY, happy endings, improbable romance, inharmonious marriage, institutional intimidation, intimidated faculty, Israeli cousins, Jerry L. Martin, Jerusalem 70 CE, liberal arts curriculum, love and self protection, love when you least expect it, marital relations, marriage broker, married love, Mr. Right, Ms. Right, no atheists in foxholes, note in the Western Wall, personal defenses, personal life balance, petitionary prayer, philosophical colleagues, philosophical research, philosophy at Sydney University, prayer at the wall, principled life at personal cost, providence, providence and coincidence, religious skeptics, romance and self protection, romantic disappointment, romantic disillusion, romantic interest, romantic other, saving liberal arts, saving the core, secret ballots, selfless act, sense of self, serendipity and providence, shared values, strategic prayer, The Western Wall, true love, vulnerability, wedding anniversary
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The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott
The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott “Coziness” is not a word in the highest repute. In the 17th century, when the philosophers called “modern” were allowing the new physics to define reality, the features they deemed objectively-out-there were measurable: like … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, novels, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, 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, 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, Utopia, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 17th Century Philosophers, Alcott as nurse, becoming a writer, catering to fashion, coming-of-age novels, cultural ideals of womanhood, death of Beth, farther shore., father-daughter relation, fatherly love, fictional simplifications, filial piety, Frederick Douglas, Greta Gerwig, guardian angels, happy endings, hard-edged modern views, hearth and home, Henry David Thoreau, home life, homelikeness, hope and faith, ideals of girlhood, important thinkers, Julia Ward Howe, literary catering, living one’s talent, Louisa May Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s death, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Margaret Fuller, Marmee, Materialism, maternal protection, measurable reality, modern feeling, motherly love, Nathaniel Hawthorne, objectivity, parental guidance, personal fulfillment, physical reality, plain living and high thinking, processing influences, Ralph Waldo Emerson, relativism, repressing anger, sentimentality, size, subjectivity, the primary qualities, the secondary qualities, Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist family, unsentimentality, velocity, weight
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Overheard at the Café
Overheard at the Café Among the rewards of my composing this column at the café where I’m what the French call an habituée, is that I get to overhear scenes from other people’s real lives. The café meets my need to … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, Biblical God, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged advice to a stranger, bad company, behind her back, café life, café seclusion, Carl Sandburg’s Cool Tombs, covering one’s tracks, divorce, divorce and status, eavesdropping, feminism and biology, feminism and culture, feminism and history, fidelity, French cafes, gossip, habituée, happy endings, male protector, marital complaints, my wife doesn’t understand me, painful truths, personal dignity, personal happiness, personal love, private conversation, rabbinic dictum, romantic story, scenes from life, scenes overheard, seducers approach, seduction, single woman, social costs, social disadvantage, social outranking, social ranking, social safety, solitary woman, the library of life, the lottery of life, the official story, tragic romance, woman without a man, women's liberation, worldly honors, writers in cafés, writing a column
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Sacrificial Acts
Sacrificial Acts A review of mine, written in support of an author I greatly admire, was just accepted for publication. It was written at the sacrifice of long-postponed time and energy that, right now, I really needed to expend … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, art of living, autonomy, books, bureaucracy, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, politics of ideas, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, sex appeal, 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, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way" by Henry M. Rosenthal; ed. Abigail L. Rosenthal, 17th Century Philosophers, academia, altruism, “Brooklyn Connections”, Benedict Spinoza, Brooklyn College, career advancement, career sacrifice, college curriculum, deathbed promise, expecting pay off, expecting rewards, faculty fight, father fixation, father/daughter relationships, finding balance, getting published, happy endings, higher education, honoring commitments, impromptu speech, invited speaker, Jerry L. Martin, job struggle, knowing what is due, Life Force, love at first sight, love sight unseen, modern philosophy, online editors, online publications, overcoming the ego, personal life, posthumous work, professional advancement, professional reputation, professional standing, providence, publication, self-sacrifice, setting priorities, strategic acumen, tea with friends, teaching obligations, Thomas Hobbes, unexpected rewards, unjust firing, unpublished manuscript, unselfishness
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