“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
This begins with innocence. I was throwing rocks in a stream for the pleasure of the splash, for the pleasure of throwing rocks into a stream or to see how far I could make them go. I was 12 or 13, old enough to know. There were ducks fifty feet or so upstream. I aimed for the pleasure of aiming so wrapped up in the mere physics of moving. No […]
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Pick up anything that fits the hand and I’ll bet you’ll toss it in the air or want to throw it as if you mean to strike a target. Twirl your arm in a circle like a propeller, your body the joint, as if your shoulder were the ball bearing it swings upon. Hold a ball and look for a tree or a post. Wind up, turn and let your […]
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From the vantage point of 67, I now see that our childhoods are fashioned more by emotion than thought, more by the moment that smashes into us than by any contemplation. The fundamental impulses of joy or disgust, fear or euphoria are immediate in their impact. They abide in memory. When I was very young, three moments forged a moral core in me that has never changed, one that I […]
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The past returns in ways you cannot predict. Matthew* was the son of a prominent doctor who was the star at the local Catholic hospital. They lived in a smart house in the only chic part of the county, a township of industrialists and lawyers and other doctors. His father was aloof, his mother brittle. The home was filled with crucifixes and portraits of Mary bounded by angels and Christ, […]
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