Browse Topics
Consciousness
Sunbeams
August 1992Rather than earn money, it was Thoreau’s idea to reduce his wants so that he would not need to buy anything. As he went around town preaching this ingenious idea, the shopkeepers of Concord hoped he would drop dead.
Pedestrian Dreams
On The Virtues Of Walking
I’m a native New Yorker. I was born in Greenwich Village and raised in Brooklyn. I don’t live in New York now, but I still work there, and I consider it my goddamned right to go anywhere I want in the city. I’ve got to watch out — if a place looks dangerous, or people look dangerous, then I’m going to steer clear. But not on principle.
August 1992Sunbeams
June 1992Why 300,000 varieties of beetles? The great English geneticist J.B.S. Haldane was once cornered by a distinguished theologian who asked him what inferences one could draw, from a study of the created world, as to the nature of its Creator. Haldane answered, “An inordinate fondness for beetles.”
June 1992
The Map I Was Promised
Things I didn’t get to last week: answering the mail, giving up coffee, saving the planet.
June 1992Uncommon Prayer
Toward A New Liturgy
There is something that loves you in the world. The voice that speaks to you within, in the worst despair, is not different from the voice that called the world into being.
June 1992Great Expectations
Bringing someone back to life, going through fertility treatments, spending more time with family
June 1992Friday
I washed the dishes and the ashtrays and the silverware and the mugs, then rinsed them off and set them on the counter on paper towels to dry.
June 1992Sunbeams
May 1992Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.
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