Donald Trump’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act and on immigrants could well end up hurting many of his supporters. A similar irony is described in Geraldine Brooks’s “Year of Wonders,” where 17th century villagers, maddened by the plague, kill two midwives.
Monthly Archives: February 2017
Our Version of Plague Maddened Villagers
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Affordable Care Act, Donald Trump, Geraldine Brooks, Immigration, Muslim ban, Obamacare, Year of Wonders Comments closed
My Cataract Surgery Recalls Oedipus, Lear
Recent cataract surgery had me recalling all those literary passages where sharp objects get poked into people’s eyes. The real drama, however, was renegotiating my professional identity.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged cataract surgery, eyes, King Lear, Medicine, Oedipus, Sophocles, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Curling Up with a Good Book
This Scott Bates is a testimony to the solitary joy of reading.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Retiring Candle", Charles Perrault, Erewhon, Evangelism, Jesus, Lewis Carroll, reading, Samuel Butler, Scott Bates, Thorstein Veblen, Through the Looking Glass, Yevgeny Yevtushenko Comments closed
Ollie the Bobcat, Whirlwind of Light
Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” helps explain why Ollie, the bobcat who escaped from the National Zoo, returned on her own. Her time in the spotlight gives me an excuse to share a pulsating bobcat poem by Mary Oliver.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Bobcat", escaped animals, Life of Pi, Mary Oliver, National Zoo, Ollie the Bobcat, Yann Martel, zoos Comments closed
Read Poetry To Keep Hope Alive
Literature that just shows us the grim truth of reality without the possibility of hope calls into question the whole enterprise. Much great literature frames reality in such a way that we can see new possibilities for ourselves.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church", "Speech to the Young", Audre Lorde, Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, racism Comments closed
