Tag Archives: lifelong friends

A Quarrel That Mattered

Posted on May 19, 2026 by Abigail

It was Jean-Paul Sartre who wrote, “A quarrel does not matter.” He was writing about a friend with whom he had broken. I believe it was Maurice Merleau-Ponty of whose death he had just learned. And, in the same commemorative … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, 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, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Abigail L Rosenthal’s Spoiling One’s Story: The Case of Hannah Arendt, affective ties, avoiding hope to prevent disappointment, being above moral judgement, bracketing moral questions, broken friendship, combating malice, comfortable with solitude, consequential fork in the road, credible lies, death preventing reconciliation, deep quarrels, destructive lies, destructive lies that are believed, dodging disappointment, envy and defamation, envy and friendship, envy and social influence, existentialists, existentialists vs rationalists, exonerating nazis, feeling ties, finding meaning in history, finding meaning in real life, friends who quarrel, friends who share memories, friendship and disloyalty, friendship betrayed, friendship over professional ambition, friendships between philosophers, friendships with history, getting above bourgeois morality, getting above chronology, getting above history, getting above morality, Hannah Arendt, Hegelian view of history, Hegelians, Heideggerians, Jean-Paul Sartre, jumping the tenses, lifelong friends, loyalty and friendship, meeting in cafes, Merleau-Ponty, moral relativism vs wickedness, Nietzschians, Nihilists, non-conformism, nonjudgementalism vs conscious evil, not asking life to make sense, opposing evil, personal force, persuasive lies, philosopher friends, philosophers of history, philosophic differences, philosophic differences and real life consequences, philosophic differences that become consequential, philosophic irrationalism, philosophic rationale for personal betrayal, Plato is dear but truth is dearer, premature transcendence, pulling meaning out of real situations, quarrel between friends, quarrel unresolved, quarrels that don’t matter, quarrels that matter, refusal to judge, refusing to judge, rights and wrongs and friendship, seeking meaning in real situations, solitude on an arctic island, superficial quarrels, surviving alone in the arctic wilderness, the bad guys who seem to win, the real is not the rational, the real is the rational, the Viking model, transcendence as evasion, transcending moral norms, transcending right and wrong, truth and friendship, truth and philosophic friendship, twin opposites, Viking attitudes, women friends, women philosophers, women philosophers who are friends, women philosophers who were friends | 2 Comments

Overloaded

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Abigail

Within the past three days, here’s what’s been happening: I’ve ridden and absorbed advice from an insightful mare named Star, talked for a long-distance hour to an Israeli cousin in Vermont whose life has required her to make her … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, anti-semitism, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, 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, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, 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, 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 a surfeit of friends, acting on your principles, American women before feminism, being young in Paris, choosing life attitudes, collected tributes, combating anti-semitism, commemorating a lost companion, consequential encounters, consequential life choices, decisive characters, emotional overload, emotionally impactful encounters, enchantment and disenchantment, English philosopher, family fate, food-for-thought, from the horse's mouth, Fulbright friendships, group commemoration, group memories, group remembrance, grownup pathway, healing silence, horse sense, horse-whisperer, insightful horse, introvert and social exhaustion, introverts and social life, lead mare, lifelong friends, lifelong romantic attitude, living one’s story, living your philosophy, long-distance reunions, loss of innocence, meaning what you say, naive expectations vs real-life dangers, navigating life's storms, need for solitude, needing to be alone, novels as keys to real life, over-connectedness, overloaded, philosopher friend, political remedies for women's situation, pre-feminist American women, quiet time, realizing your ideals, recharging social batteries, recorded tributes, refusing cynism, remembering the departed, romantic hopes, significant reunions, Simone de Beauvoir’s Deuxieme Sexe, Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex, social exhaustion, socially overwhelmed, strong character, study companions, surviving tragic loses, taking charge of the herd, taking life seriously, tangled inheritance, the feminine situation, the horse knows, the need to stand down, The Woman Question, thought provoking encounters, too much of a good thing, Torah Study, transatlantic friendship, untangling family connections, Vikings, virtual reunions, women friends, women friends in Paris, women's predicaments, women's problems and political remedies, women's rights, youthful expectations and reality, youthful idealism, youthful innocence, youthful romantic hopes | Leave a comment

The Gang’s All Here

Posted on January 9, 2024 by Abigail

In honor of the new year, I’ve been catching up by phone with some of the friendships that have lasted for the long term. One friend has been in my life since we were both students at the now-defunct High … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the gang's all here", "Three Coins in the Fountain", a woman's personal force, afterlife reunion, being good at being a woman, cafe chats with women friends, class reunion, collegial friends, comparing notes in heaven, comparing notes in the afterlife, confiding in friends, designing your heaven, discussing life's big questions with friends, dream romance, envying viriginity, eternal friends, experimental youth, femininity and youth, femininity and masculinity, finding a husband, fortune's favorite, friends as life witnesses, friends from way back when, friends gone before, friends in good times and bad, friends who were kids together, friends you want to meet again, Fulbright friends, Fulbright in Paris, growing up and liking it, herstory, high school friends, High School of Music and Art, horse riding with friends, how life worked out for classmates, in search of lost time, integrity is more fun, keeping one's friends, keeping one's honor, keeping virginity, landing on one's feet, life forces that overwhelm, life review, life's plateaus, life's regrets, life's roadblocks, lifelong friends, lifelong friendships, lost friendships, marrying before graduation, outgrowing childhood friends, personal heaven, preperation for life, reflections in heaven, romance and reality, securing your story, seeing friends in heaven, senior panic to marry, sharing life chapters with friends, spinster and old maid, spiritual surrender, surviving the storms of life, taking a side-path, the biological plight of women, the gang's not all here, the meaning of life and love, the price of integrity, the pursuit of wisdom, timeless talks with friends, timeless talks with women friends, tragic flaw, unprepared for reality, vulnerability of women, what happened to classmates, wise parental friends, women's biological clock, young girls' dreams | 3 Comments

Remembrances

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Abigail

When people are no longer present to each other, or able – in an unforced way – to walk in and out of each other’s days, the risk is that spatial distance will become psychic distance. That’s when measures of … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, beauty, Biblical God, 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, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, reading, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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 almost a saint, antebellum house, career comeback, career crash, closing a house, down to earth, Downeast Maine, emotional ties, family home, fixing the fight, friend as a witness, friendly silences, generational roots, getting tenure, groupthink, homesickness, jury bias, keeping old friends, lifelong friends, localism, longing for a friend, more fish in the sea, most beautiful girl, natural aristocrats, near saints, nostalgia, old friends, philosophy professor, philosophy students, Plato, reconstituting relationships, remembered years, remembering friendships, resilience, resisting defamation, resisting gossip, saints, small town approval, small town life, small town smarts, spiritual shelter, sports writer, stored in memory, surviving one’s parents, the face of love, unfinished friendship, winning a job fight, witnessing one’s story | 1 Comment

Tag Archives: lifelong friends

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