Writing is Remembering
Amnon and Tamar by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri 1591 – 1666). Any love that is dependent on something, when that something vanishes, the love also ceases; but when it is not dependent on anything, then it will never cease. Which love was dependent on something? The love of Amnon and Tamar. And which love was not … Continue reading It Will Never Cease
Susanna and the Elders, Peter Paul Rubens, Date: 1609 - 1610. Are some subjects off-limits in the arts? That is, are some objects suitable for painting, for example, and others not? What about literature? Is Oscar Wilde right when he says in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray: "There is no such thing as … Continue reading Love Compresses the Flesh
Mug shot of Vincenzo Perugia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa out of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Do you believe it is possible to learn from everyone, even from someone whose behavior is unethical? I don't mean to learn from them only negative lessons, for example, what not to do, or how not … Continue reading A Thief Is Modest
A Female Farmer From South China in the 1930s. ROC reporter, 1935. In his book, A Tzaddik in Our Time: The Life of Rabbi Aryeh Levin, author Simcha Raz relates a story from Rabbi Levin's life containing advice about how to treat a wife. One of the rabbi's young students was about to get married. He … Continue reading A Moment of Marriage
Streptopelia turtur (European turtle dove). John Gerrard Keulemans, 1869. A popular question asked by interviewers, particularly of celebrities, is what book they would like to have with them if they found themselves stranded on a desert island. "A desert island, or uninhabited island," according to Wikipedia, "is an island, islet or atoll that is not … Continue reading Arise and Go, My Friend
Solitude, by Marc Chagall. Paris, 1933. Over the last several weeks, like you, I have had to live in a scary world with increasing restrictions on what I am permitted and not permitted to do. For instance, I am allowed to go only to certain places and just for specific reasons. My walks with my … Continue reading An Unrealistic World of My Own
Construction of Xerxes Bridge of boats by Phoenician sailors. I used to work in the Information Systems Department of a large insurance company in the US. One morning, I arrived at work to find a colleague vigorously punching his computer terminal. He struck the metal casing several solid blows. Once he had settled down a … Continue reading The Unruliness of Our Minds
What can you do when you find yourself suddenly, and unexpectedly, in the power of someone you have offended, and they have revenge in mind? Assume the situation is one in which they can ruin your reputation, or deprive you of your livelihood, or take your life. Are there ways to handle the situation, to … Continue reading Softening the Hearts
Backyard Roses. Photo by Beth Ben-Avraham, Beersheba, Israel, 2019. On March 24, 1976, two policemen knocked on the door of my apartment in student housing at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. The policemen told me that they had received a message; I was to call my father's music store in Jackson. Both my former … Continue reading The Bitter and the Sweet
(Cucurbita pepo var. giromontina). Found in Berzi near Bauska city, Latvia. Sanja565658 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). Over forty years ago, I became a vegetarian. I was a philosophy graduate student at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Not, in all of the time since, did I become familiar with the term "vegetable marrow." Recently, however, I … Continue reading “I Cultivate the Marrows”
