I’m always struck by comments from researchers about how many lives may be “saved” if only we would take their recommended drugs. Trouble is, you see, the total number of lives “saved” will always be zero. Drugs might alter your experience of life, but they won’t make you immortal. As the Onion once famously proclaimed [...]
Archive for the ‘life’ Category
Fear of dying or passion for living?
Posted in books, from the consulting room, from the living room, health, life on May 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Where’s everybody going?
Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, photography on May 2, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Tokyo Station by night. I’m amazed to watch the constant snaking in and out of the station of the long, long trains they have here in Japan. From the 32nd floor here it looks like a giant train set (if only I had a bank of remote controls!) But as I gaze down on all [...]
Plane view
Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, perception, photography on May 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
When I turned fifty I celebrated with a flight in a hot air balloon. Standing in that small basket, the intermittent roar and heat of a burner over my head, peering over the edge of the woven cane, entranced by the red earth of the Atlas mountains receding beneath my feet, was the strangest feeling. [...]
This sparkling day (it won’t be back)
Posted in from the dark room, life, photography on April 27, 2012 | 1 Comment »
I was recently reminded – “this is your last chance to enjoy today” Here’s the morning dew on someone’s front lawn – beautiful, huh? Once you start to look for what sparkles, you can see it everywhere. I especially like the sparkles in children’s eyes. Enjoy today – it won’t be back.
A miraculous life
Posted in books, from the living room, from the reading room, life, philosophy on April 19, 2012 | 2 Comments »
When I read this passage from Marilynne Robinson’s new book, I immediately recalled Robert Solomon’s “Joy of Philosophy” (which I reviewed and reflected on here) There is a tendency, considered highly rational, to reason from a narrow set of interests, say survival and procreation, which are supposed to govern our lives, and then to treat [...]
View from Sirius
Posted in from the living room, from the reading room, life, movies, personal growth, philosophy on April 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The view from Sirius……I was exploring the origins of this idea today (it’s actually a French phrase “point de vue de sirius”), and found that someone had helpfully linked it to this clip from the great Dead Poets’ Society (haven’t seen that film in YEARS!) I like it. In French, this idea relates to the [...]
To know someone
Posted in books, from the consulting room, from the living room, from the reading room, health, life on April 13, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Stumbled across a fabulous extract from Marilynne Robinson’s new book. Here’s just one of the paragraphs which hooked me – There is a great difference, in fiction and in life, between knowing someone and knowing aboutsomeone. When a writer knows about his character, he is writing for plot. When he knows his character, he is writing to explore, to feel [...]
The magic of being human
Posted in from the living room, from the reading room, life, psychology on April 12, 2012 | 5 Comments »
There’s been quite a drive to reduce human beings to purposeless, temporary clusters of molecules. I don’t buy into it. For me, to understand what it is to be human involves taking on board consciousness, an inescapable subjective experience of a self, the interconnectedness of a person with others and with the rest of the [...]
The Slow Movement approach to weight loss
Posted in from the consulting room, from the reading room, health, life, tagged vfs on April 10, 2012 | 2 Comments »
The French do seem to have a different way of viewing Life from the British. That’s one of the reasons I really enjoy reading French publications, and one of my regulars is a magazine called “Cles“. In the most recent issue they have a thought provoking and different article about dieting. In “Cles” there is [...]
The benefits of aging
Posted in books, from the consulting room, from the reading room, health, life, tagged vfs on March 21, 2012 | 3 Comments »
More of us are living more years than our ancestors did. That’s often presented as a problem. How will we afford all the pensions? How will we afford to pay for the extra care these millions of additional frail people will need? How will we afford to pay for the extra years of drugs they’ll [...]
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