The book I just finished, “The Architecture of Happiness” by Alain de Botton, is one that I read slowly in order to savor the language. This is the second book I’ve read by de Botton and he is a smart writer, putting together words in unexpected ways to create insights that make you think. One of his make-you-think statements is the following: “It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value.”…
Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things My latest internet explorations …. 5 things the media does to manufacture outrage by Parker Molloy How to Respond to an Active Shooter from the ALICE Training Institute – It pains me that we live in a society where this information is necessary, which I noted in a Facebook post about the shooting at the Colorado Planned Parenthood. My sister-in-law passed along this link, saying that school districts get…
Since my dad died 2 1/2 years ago, I’ve been paying especially close attention to the local obituaries. Perhaps because my dad died after having just turned 71, which seems much too young to my 48-year-old soul, I noticed that I was seeing an awful lot of deaths among the 40 to 60-year-old cohort, joining those who were over the age of 85. (It’s not uncommon to see people reach the high 90s or even…