Sunday, October 30, 2005

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Love is a lot like money--you're miserable when you've got it, and miserable when you don't. Love is a four-letter word, and like other four-letter words, it can evoke pleasure, pain, laughter or tears and virtually any other element of the emotional spectrum one can imagine. Ships have been launched, wars have been won and lost because of love. Alfred Lord Tennyson said "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Vincent Van Gogh was very likely driven to cut off his ear for the sake of love, which he described as "...something eternal, the aspect may change, but not the essence." And Dr. Karl Menninger, the noted clinician, knew the curative powers of love, and said so: "Love cures people--both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it." It's sad to realize that some people never get love, and some never recognize it when they do. Even more disheartening, I think, is to realize the essential sadness of going through life without loving. We'd all like to be loved back. But the opportunity doesn't come often. Maybe in the meantime, the thing to do is use opportunities to love, because it would be almost as sad to die without ever saying "I love you" to those you love. After all, love is an endless act of forgiveness.

Monday, April 25, 2005

A Cut Above

Sometimes people ask whether I've been a journalist all my life. And I say "Not yet." Things got a little scary recently, though, when I found out I had cancer. Fortunately, it was a kind of cancer that could be caught -- or so we hope -- by surgery. Even more important, a minor inflamation that didn't seem to be significant turned out to be another cancer, which was also removed during the surgical process.
So I'm upright, which is better than the alternative. To those who visited, thanks very much. Thanks also to those who thought about it, or at least put off thinking bad things about me for awhile.
Surgery is sometimes more than it's cut out to be. I can't say that I recommend it, but I do strongly recommend anyone who suspects a wound that doesn't heal, unusual bleeding or lumps to see a qualified physician and have it checked. I had a tumor that looked like a mushroom, but not all cancers are so obvious. Modern medical knowledge can deal with cancers that are detected soon enough, often with prospects of full recovery. It is certainly worth the time and money to have a checkup.

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Easter and other holidays

I get confused by commercial holidays, because they are often just excuses to sell chocolate. Valentine's Day used to be a day to send and get valentines. Little romantic notes on hard candies took over: "kiss me"
And of course Christmas is more an excuse to sell toys and game machines and Ipod Minis than a religious event. I guess some parts of the world do keep to their holy days, which is cool. And I suppose it's also nice that people can enjoy holidays even if they are not believers of a particular religion. So having a couple of extra days off at Easter is nice, no matter what we may know or care about the reason for the holiday. But I get confused. Santa brings toys. The Great Pumpkin brings...what? Pumpkin seeds?
And the Easter Bunny brings....eggs? Come on. Eggs? What would the Easter Chicken bring then?
Don't answer that.