Feeling blue? Take a hike! It turns out that a walk on the wild side may be an invigorating, healthful antidote to brooding. Just the news I've been waiting for (and suspecting) ever since sitting down at my desk this morning. A walk in the park may soothe the mind and, in the process, change the workings of our brains in ways that improve our mental health, according to an interesting new study ...
High School
"High School is the place where poetry goes to die." ~ Billy Collins I'm not sure whether or not my high school experience included an attempted murder or poetry. But mine was an unusual and invigorating place, so maybe the poetic anemia of other schools wasn't so much a factor during my four years in a bucolic boarding school in New England. Yes, there were warts, but no poetry fatwa. And that ...
Middling
"Fair to middlin'...," she says, visibly, audibly, olfactorily tired. Like a threshold, I think to myself but say nothing since she looks and sounds unready for clever or even philosophical fat chewing. "How have you been?" I had asked reflexively. "Fine, and you?" That's what I expected if I expected anything at all. But instead, a verbal grimace, "Fair to middlin'." I can't help but prologue her ...
Your Place
"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 ...
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 ...