In “Alice through the Looking Glass,” boating is a metaphor for life slipping by–unnoticed by Alice but seen as deeply tragic by Carroll.
Tag Archives: Aging
The Dreamlike Pleasures of Rowing
Jane Eyre on Caring for the Sick
As I support people who are sick and aging, I turn to Jane Eyre as a model of one who considers such activity to be, not a self-sacrifice, but a gift to herself.
Federer, Unlike Ulysses, a Family Man Hero
Time and again with Roger Federer, thinking he is nearing his end, I have cited Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” He keeps proving me wrong. One reason may be because he has a different relationship with his family than Tennyson’s protagonist has.
Kranz & Muriel Spark on Insulting the Aged
Today I share a poker post from my 61-year-old novelist and poker playing friend Rachel Kranz, about the indignities of being called “young lady” while at the poker table. Muriel Spark similarly objects to the indignities heaped upon those who are aging in her novel “Memento Mori.”
How to Keep Beauty from Vanishing Away
Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo” works as a Lenten meditation on the beauty of God’s grace.
The Violins of Autumn
I still remember memorizing, as a child in a French school, Paul Verlaine’s deliciously sad “Chanson d’automne.”
Wonder in an Old Leather Mitt
Emilio DeGrazia’s poems about an old leather mitt is a wonderful meditation on aging.

