What We Disbelieve

I’m currently reading An Imperfect Lens, by Anne Roiphe, a historical novel based in Alexandria, Egypt, with a plot woven around the search to find the cause of cholera. One of the French scientists who has just arrived in Egypt is Louis Thuiller, a student under Louis Pasteur. He has just discovered that the first [...]

Read Full Post »

"A fix for every glitch"

I think I picked that phrase up from a book I read, but now I cannot locate it.
In any case, the idea is running relentlessly through my head.
Here are some of the questions bombarding me as I ponder and re-ponder this phrase.
What does it mean for me (or for you) to have grown up (or [...]

Read Full Post »

Mixed Emotions

I tend to confuse people, and I often sound like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth, because of the way that I experience and express conflicting emotions simultaneously–emotions which seem like they should be mutually exclusive (at least with regards to the same situation). Or emotions which seem like they should balance [...]

Read Full Post »

Skip to the Loo

 [UPDATE: Sorry about the cartoon being cut off before. It should be fixed now.]
Alternate Title: Introvert Escape Route
I never really pondered what the words, “Skip to my Lou, my darling”  meant…
…until we lived in Africa near a British family, who referred to our outhouse as The Loo. Now we had a song to sing on [...]

Read Full Post »

A Movie to Grapple With

Internet Monk has a review of a powerful movie, Beyond the Gates,  based on the genocide in Rwanda.
I was also stirred by a comment written by Tope, whose family is from Nigeria.
For background, I-Monk talks about a reporter in the movie:
As one character, a reporter, says, when she was in Bosnia, the dead women reminded [...]

Read Full Post »

Compassion and Empathy…

…A Question of Semantics
What do you think? How are those two different? Which do you find to be easier or more natural to you? Could you give examples of how either one looks in your own life or in the life of someone you know or have heard or read of?
I know I’m being a bit [...]

Read Full Post »

No Regrets

Or at least, not very many.
I think “regret” is sometimes given too much space. There is a place for regret–for reflection that causes me to look back and learn from mistakes and make changes that help me do things differently in the future. However, that, I think, fits more with the word “remorse” than it [...]

Read Full Post »