Tag Archives: Leo Bronstein
“Abandonment”
“Abandonment” Eloi eloi lama sabachthani These were the recorded penultimate words of Jesus dying on the cross. It’s a quote from a Davidic psalm, but clearly, for him, not an experience at second hand. My God, my God, why hast … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, power, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, seduction, self-deception, social conventions, spiritual not religious, spirituality, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged abandonment, addiction, addictive anti-semitism, alcoholism, anti-semitism, Aramaic, book signing, chariots of fire, chariots of Israel, coarsened national mood, coarsening of discourse, coarsening of public life, conversations with Jesus, creative people, crucifixion, Davidic psalm, Edward Alexander's Jews Against Themselves, Eloi eloi lama sabachthani, evidence for God, experience of God, false memory, fellowship, forsakenness, genocide, God's care, hippies, Holocaust, Jesus, Jesus in synagogues, Jewish fear, Jewish guilt, Jewish history, Jewish memory, Leo Bronstein, longest hatred, national discourse, past life memory, past lives, peace and love, peace on earth, peaceful thoughts, Pebble Hill Church, politicide, providence, recognition, refuge, religious "nones", retired hippies, sbnr, Second Kings 2:9, Second Kings 6:15, seekers, settled creeds, Shoah, spiritual but not religious, spiritual evolution, state of Israel, sympathy, synagogues, tenderness, the prophet Elisha, travail of life
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“Birthday!”
“Birthday!” The way you can tell that “I” don’t choose these topics (but respond – as if to an inner prompt) is instanced here: why would anyone (over twenty one) choose that one? My acupuncturist tells me that I’m 29 … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, memoir, mind control, modernism, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, non-violence, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a life of one's own, acupuncture, Aging, Authenticity, bad checks, battening the hatches, being duped, being misinformed, biography, birthday, bitterness, blunders, celebration, chi, children blaming parents, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cosmic perspective, countering depression, cultural mistakes, cutting losses, delusions of love, depression, disappointment, dramatic people, extraordinary people, facing facts, fascinating people, fear of aging, filial piety, global perspective, global suffering, God's eye view, going strong, heartbreak, honoring father and mother, human history, Leo Bronstein, life foundation, life missteps, life mistakes, life path, life's unfairness, looking younger than your age, mentor, misplaced hopes, mistaken beliefs, mistakes of the culture, mistakes of youth, native ground, native track, necessary mistakes, negative acts, old souls, original life, originality, overprotection, parent-child relationships, parenting, Parenting 101, personal pathway, personal presence, Plan A, Plan D, problem of evil, problem of pain, public intellectuals, rebellion, recovery, recuperation, refusal, romantic delusions, spectator, strong personality, tapering off, unfairness, victory, Walking Wounded, war wounds, winding down
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“Tenderness”
“Tenderness” There is a southern black woman, about two generations after slavery, who figures as the heroine in a novel by Zora Neale Hurston. In the scene from which the lines below are taken, she has met a man who … Continue reading
Posted in action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, contemplation, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, faith, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, race, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, violence, war, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Five Variations on the Theme of Japanese Painting", "Leo's Orphans: A Survivor's Musings on the Power of Protective Tenderness", "Their Eyes Were Watching God", 613 mitzvot, Abigail L. Rosenthal, American novel, awareness, black women, Christian clergy, Christianity, commandments, conflict resolution, conformism, evidence, Exodus, heroine, injuries, interfaith, Israelites, Japan, Jewish observance, judgementalism, Leo Bronstein, living the moment, Maimonides, marital relations, mindfulness, Nazi genocide, novel, Passover, past lives, peer pressure, Rabbi, Reform Judaism, reincarnation, Shoah, shunning, slavery, Terror, The South, unleavened bread, Yom ha Shoah, zen, Zora Neale Hurston
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“Writing”
“Writing” I grew up among people whose most-oft-voiced concern was whether they would get their book, or next book, written. Without the book, the life-worth dwindled down to a small pile of ash, as my child’s mind pictured it. It … Continue reading
Posted in academe, culture, evil, history of ideas, literature, memoir, philosophy, power, psychology, relationships, spirituality, the examined life, theism, work, writing
Tagged "A Good Look At Evil", "Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir", academe, alienation, American woman, Augustine, Authenticity, author, becoming a writer, Bildungsroman, books, brainwashing, childhood, coming-of-age books, confessions, conversion, critics, despair, double-binds, editors, explanatory hypotheses, Henry M. Rosenthal, intellectuals, Jane Cullen, Jewish Theistic essence, Leo Bronstein, literary ambition, literary criticism, narrative, philosophical articles, publishing, real life, referee, rejection letters, reviewers, Rousseau, Russians, secrets, university press, writers, writing
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“Philosophy”
“Philosophy” As a little girl, I would set the lunch table extra slowly so that I could overhear the philosophic conversations between my father, Henry M. Rosenthal, and Léo Bronstein, his closest friend. Understanding not a word, I still liked … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, culture, dialectic, femininity, history of ideas, philosophy, political, relationships, social conventions, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Analytic philosophy, Australian materialism, élan vital, Bergson, Camus, communism, Continental philosophy, dialectic, Enlightenment, fascism, Femininity, Freud, George Weigel, Henry M. Rosenthal, human conversation, laws of history, Leo Bronstein, meaningful life, Newtonian science, Nietzsche, philosophy, progress, reality, Social Darwinism, technology, The Great War, Utopianism, WWI
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