This past fall I reviewed The Best Spiritual Writing 1998, a book that provided me with inspiration as well as pleasure. Notable among the contributions from various writers, one entitled “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy” struck me as particularly insightful.
In only one page and a half author Cynthia Ozick reveals the meaning of the Jewish Sabbath with deep appreciation. Her brief chapter both reinforces my understanding of that special day and carries it much further.
Arranging to see a film depicting a World War II battle with a veteran of that battle and several more does not necessarily mean a shared aesthetic experience. That’s what I discovered last week after synchronizing my viewing of “The Thin Red Line” with a former navy officer who took part in the invasion of Guadalcanal.
This past fall I reviewed The Best Spiritual Writing 1998, a book that provided me with inspiration as well as pleasure. Notable among the contributions from various writers, one entitled “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy” struck me as particularly insightful.
In only one page and a half author Cynthia Ozick reveals the meaning of the Jewish Sabbath with deep appreciation. Her brief chapter both reinforces my understanding of that special day and carries it much further.
Strom Thurmond gives me problems. These problems came to a head last week as the senior senator from South Carolina took on a highly visible national role. Serving as President pro Tempore of the United States Senate, he opened the proceedings of the impeachment trial of President Clinton.
When I served as director of the Cambridge Council on Aging, I dealt often, sometimes daily, with an elderly woman who was famous for complaining about other people. She would telephone city hall with a long list of grievances and, no matter how officials would respond, she was never satisfied.
Colleagues in the City Manager’s office, feeling frustrated, would commonly pass her telephone calls on to me. Like every other public official who ever had to deal with her, I regarded her as impossible to please.
Among researchers in the biology of aging, Leonard Hayflick has a big reputation. So well known is he in such circles that his name has been given to the limits by which human cells can multiply. Only around 50 times, he discovered decades ago, can such multiplication occur, the so-called “Hayflick limit.” (Some other research, newly reported, suggests that this limit can be overcome.)