"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things." ~ Mary Oliver (from "Wild Geese") Perhaps Mary Oliver's reminder is and appropriate response to midlife loneliness. After all, when "the world offers itself to your imagination", you can certainly ...
Midlife Scrapbook
Clowns
[W]here are the clowns? Send in the clowns Don't bother, they're here Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer? Losing my timing this late in my career But where are the clowns? Send in the clowns Well, maybe next year ...
Midlife Loneliness
Good morning, midlifers. I have an addition to your reading list that sheds a ray of hopeful light on midlife loneliness — both why it's common, and how to counter it — that I highly recommend whether or not you've personally experienced midlife loneliness. Coincidently Josh Cohen' s "Why is midlife such a lonely time?" appeared in The Guardian yesterday afternoon, about 24 hours after three ...
Independence
Here's to a happy, healthy Independence Day, American friends! (Plus a much wider wish for independence—real, autonomy striving, responsibility ensured freedom—to creators and explorers and teachers and dreamers all around the world.) At the risk of sounding pedantic, I invite and encourage you to shoehorn a few minutes between the bunting and the barbeque, between the parade and the fireworks, a ...
Reunion
I've just returned from my 25th high school reunion. For the mathematically challenged (and I am one), that means that I graduated from high school 9,125 days ago. Approximately. Plenty. It feels like yesterday. Well, it does except for a quarter century's already fuzzy adventures and misadventures that have accrued since executing one of the most clever and ...
Invention
"Invention, the spontaneous generation of new rules, is central to art." ~ John Gardner ...