Tag Archives: sincerity
Days of Awe
Days of Awe On the anniversary of September 11, I often rerun the column that I posted here in September 2001, after my visit to the City, a week later. Like many people, I’d felt shattered by the attack on … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, beauty, Biblical God, Christianity, cities, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, martyrdom, masculinity, medieval, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, relationships, religion, roles, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, suffering, terror, terrorism, 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, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 9/11, American crisis, art protection, Book of Job, Byzantine crucifix, city walking, cultural crisis, defining event, desire to live, divine immanence, Faith, fear, fearfulness, FEMA, first responders, gratitude, grief, Ground Zero, Henry M. Rosenthal's "Prayer and Its Power", heroes, Kali, loss, Lower Manhattan, mental concentration, mental focus, Metropolitan Museum, National Guard, New York City, New York cops, New York firemen, New York resilience, New Yorkers, power of prayer, prayer, psychological fragmentation, Rabbi, realism, self-integration, sermon, sincerity, sorrow, spirit, spiritual focus, street smarts, terrorism, Todd Stone, transcendence, urban attack, walking intelligently, war zone
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“Happiness”
“Happiness” “Call no man happy until he is dead,” said Solon, the ancient sage, to Croesus. Croesus was “rich as Croesus,” as the saying goes, and king of Lydia. So he was nonplussed at Solon’s reluctance to admit that he … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, autonomy, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, idolatry, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, philosophy, poetry, political, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, twentieth century, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Quiz Show", "the pursuit of happiness", academic fight, acupuncture, Advice, Ancient Lydia, Ancient Persia, anguish, Aristotle, bird baths, bird watching, birds, birthright, Brooklyn College, Carl Mangione PT, celebrity, Charles Van Doren, cheating, college curriculum, Columbia class of 1925, confession, Croesus, Cyrus the Great, Declaration of Independence, despair, divine gifts, family honor, grace, gratitude, hairdresser, handicap, Henry M. Rosenthal, human rights, identity, ingratitude, insincerity, Jennifer Kelly hairstylist, Kinetic syndrome, Mark Van Doren, memoir, misery, mortification, Mr. Right, national scandal, Nicomachean Ethics, non-advice, normality, physical therapy, problem of evil, reputation, resignation, Richard Firnhaber acupuncture, right to happiness, sell out, selling one's birthright, sincerity, Solon, suffering, the emotional norm, The History of Herodotus, the human norm, the mental norm, the physical norm, the psychical norm, TV idol, TV Quiz Show, unhappiness, walking handicap, wickedness
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“Knowing Thyself”
“Knowing Thyself” My right foot has a walking difficulty. I have been trying unsuccessfully to cure it for as long as I’ve had it. That’s about twenty years. No one in the medical field has been able to diagnose it. … Continue reading
Posted in action, cool, desire, dialectic, erotic life, faith, femininity, philosophy, poetry, psychology, relationships, roles, social conventions, spirituality, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged acupuncture, Aristotle, Authenticity, body rhythm, brain, contradiction, diagnosis, disability, dualism, eliptical, energy, exercise, handicap, hope, hypothesis, identity theory, Materialism, medication, medicine, mental causation, MRI, neurology, physical causation, placebo effect, psychic healing, psychosomatic, psychotherapy, riding, sincerity, strolling, symptoms, The Mind-Body Problem, the will, therapeutic riding, Total Gym, walking, yoga
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“Conversions”
“Conversions” What we believe influences our taste, our most consequential choices, our self-esteem and sense of our own weight in the world. When we are viewed from outside and classified, what’s typically picked out are the inherited features (“nature”) and … Continue reading
Posted in art, culture, faith, feminism, history of ideas, memoir, philosophy, political, psychology, relationships, social conventions, spirituality, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Ariadne's Thread, Aristotle, atheist, behavior therapy, belief, believer in free will, brainwashing, Caravaggio, coercion, confessions, conservative, conversion, determinist, duress, feminist, Fidelista, friendship, gnostic, Hank Williams, I Saw the Light, Jew, labyrinth, nature and nurture, paradigm change, personal identity, self-concept, sincerity, stimulus response conditioning, The Road to Damascus, theist, traditional woman, transformation, truth
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“Men!”
“Men!” For some years I had a brilliant friend, male, with whom I used to talk far into the night about the most sublime and transcendent matters. We were sufficiently drawn to one another to be lovers, other colleagues … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, culture, desire, erotic life, femininity, friendship, gender balance, masculinity, relationships, spirituality, the problematic of woman
Tagged character, colleagues, con-artistry, coquetry, desire, fate, flattery, friend, ideal, ideality, intention, intuition, lovers, man/woman friendships, Masculinity, money, moral fragility, morality, philosophy, Plato, platonic relationships, repentance, rip off, sincerity, sublime, transcendent conversation
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