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Mending the past

15 Oct

JJeanette Winterson (2011) in her novel, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? ( New York, Grove Press) eloquently holds out the prospect of our mending the past and recognizes Freud’s contribution. She said, “Freud, one of the great masters of narrative, knew that the past is not fixed in the way that linear time suggests. We can return. We can pick up what we dropped. We can mend what others broke. We can talk with the dead” (p. 58).

Suffering

11 Oct

Michel de Montaigne: He who fears he shall suffer already suffers what he fears.

Movies

6 Oct

I have recently seen two good movies: Blue Jasmine and And Enough Said. In both movies the central female characters were caught in webs of lies of their own making. The woman in Blue Jasmine, very like Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire, could not extricate herself because her pretense was too pervasive and too important to her. The lies and her adherence to them destroyed her psychologically and decimated her relationships. The central female in Enough Said, after being caught and making efforts to cover, was able to admit to her deceptions, understand why she had needed them, and feel real guilt. Because she could face the full implications of her lies, she was able to make sincere apology and mend her relationship with a man she had deceived but could now more fully love without needing to diminish her affection through her lies to self and him.

Deserves Repeating

3 Oct

Reba McEntire: To succeed in life you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.”

Older & Happier

30 Sep

Scientific American Mind, 2013, 24, 2, p. 9): “The researchers found, after controlling for variables such as health, wealth, gender, ethnicity and education, that well-being increases over everyone’s lifetime.”

Joke

27 Sep

Dennis Miller: I admit it, I’m a hypochondriac. But I manage to control it with a placebo.

About Truth

22 Sep

Reverend John Porter (1981): May you never cease your quest after the truth; and may you always be spared the company of those who are absolutely convinced they have found it. (I really like this one.)

Timely Quote

19 Sep

T.S. Elliott: Half of the harm done in this world is due to people who want to feel important.

Suicide Hotline

15 Sep

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline telephone number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Love at First Sight

13 Sep

48% of men and 28% of women say that they have fallen in love at first sight, according to a poll of about 100,000 adults. (Monitor on Psychology, 2013, 44, 3)

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