descent into dementia …
William Utermohlen’s series of self-portraits after his diagnosis of dementia. NYT essay slide show JMP article
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Art & Literature
Art – Literature – Music – Movies
the thread of life …
… The mother herself becomes a key element of the drama: she weaves the thread of life, in contrast with the image of the Fates, who weave the thread, but they are always ready to cut it. The artist wants to underline the importance of the presence of another person, although silent, which is able to
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what in fact is death?
A child who has to go through the woods in the dark will still be scared even if you prove to him a hundred times that there is no danger. He is not afraid of something specific that he could name, but rather he experiences in the dark the insecurity, the vulnerability, and the eeriness
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a measure of my days …
“Health is not a commodity. Risk factors are not disease. Aging is not an illness. To fix a problem is easy, to sit with another suffering is hard. Doing all we can is not the same as doing what we should. Quality is more than metrics. Patients cannot see outside their pain, we cannot see
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carrion comfort …
Gerard Manley Hopkins Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee; Not untwist — slack they may be — these last strands of man In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can; Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be. But ah, but O thou terrible,
tattoos on the heart …
Father Greg Boyle accompanies us on a journey in the lives of the gang members and their families he has spent his life with. His lived experience is a powerful antidote to our own ennui and confusion. This book is hard to read for very long at a time – there is so much deep,
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sonnet 73 …
That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by
it is also lonely among men …
“Good evening,” said the little prince courteously. “Good evening,” said the snake. “What planet is this on which I have come down?” asked the little prince. “This is the Earth; this is Africa,” the snake answered. “Ah! Then there are no people on the Earth?” “This is the desert. There are no people in the
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hitchens loses his (physical) voice …
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid. —T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Christopher Hitchens writes about the loss of his voice in his continuing journey with esophageal cancer … “In
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Wit … and forgiveness …
The play ‘Wit’ will be performed today and this weekend at Bethel College. “Unless we are prepared to deal with these issues of dignity and forgiveness in our own lives, we will not be able to deal with issues of dignity and forgiveness in the lives of those we serve. We share Vivian Bearing’s [the
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