About 30 years ago a friend, who was 90 years old, repeated an often-heard phrase which was “Life is short,” and at her age I could understand that it was getting much shorter. Then she added another, intriguing sentence, “Eat dessert first and always take the biggest piece.” I found it rather amusing and by
Almost everyone I know, including myself, have had some kind of event that has thrown us off track, hopefully temporarily. It’s not always easy to resume, like pushing the button on speed control. There are many reasons why it’s so difficult to regroup ones energy, purpose and drive to continue. We can feel emotionally and
Atul Gawande’s book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, published just a year ago, takes a good look at how we, and the medical community, deal with people in the later years of their lives. For those of us with aging parents or who ourselves are already past the midpoint, whatever that
Assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case.” Annie Dillard, On Writing, p. 68 At age 41 I had an epiphany about my own mortality. I was leaving my office, driving through a parking lot toward the main street. I had to stop the car as
This phrase, “less is more” appeared in a love poem (line78) in 1855 by Robert Browning , “Andrea del Sarto” called The Faultless Painter. The phrase was adopted by Mies van der Rohe, an architect whom I studied briefly in an undergraduate course called “The House.” He, along with a number of others, including Frank
Several years ago, I posed the question about what people were curious about and the seven people responded with these interesting questions and musings. I commend them to you in the interest of your own curiosity. CS Why do I (and many others as we get older) wake up at 3 am? Will we
