I read. A lot. In looking back through the books I’ve read in the past 5 years (yes, I keep a list), I see that I’ve read a number of very good ones. So, when I say a book is the most enlightening one I’ve read in 5 years, that’s saying something. “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America” by Colin Woodard has completely changed how I see the…
The unfathomable has happened. I am bookless. I don’t think I’ve been bookless since I was in elementary school. Once I finally got the hang of reading (I was a late reader, having caused first grade teachers some distress with my lack of literary ability) and had a library card, I was never without a stack of books to read by my bedside. Even though people told me that college would ruin me for reading,…
Shazam! Another Frankensteining the Talent Pool idea! This one sparked by my husband playing a couple of videos by the band Disturbed on YouTube this evening. The kicker was Disturbed’s version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.” The way Disturbed performs this song made me listen more carefully to the lyrics because they start slowly and quietly, with the music becoming louder and more emotional as it continues, until there is a pause…
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.”…
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…