Survival in an Indifferent Universe

#cancer #grief #disaster #god #tragedy My  mother, my sister-in-law, my best friend, and my ex-wife died of cancer. Universe Cancer is evil. Like anything else, it wants to thrive. Growth, normally, is regarded as a good. Cancer is uncontrolled growth. It thrives by destroying the cells that support life, love, and thought. Nothing continues to…

Read More

Certainty Never a Given in Remarriage

#Divorce #Remarriage #Therapy #Doubt “You didn’t!” a friend exclaimed when I told her that I posted my most recent article. “I’d have thought you’d write it and throw it away.” “Why? It was part of my life, all those years ago.” “But why now, so long . . . What, over 30 years . .…

Read More

Poet Robert Lax – Michael N. McGregor’s Powerful Biography

Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax by Michael N. McGregor is a powerful biography of a poet who only recently has been recognized for his contributions to the evolution of contemporary poetry. The book succeeds on several levels. Lax was born to immigrant parents in Olean, New York in 1915. The middle class…

Read More

Coronary Bypass Surgery Commonplace and Life Extending for Many.

#bypasssurgery #coronary #openheart Coronary bypass surgery has been around for more than 50 years. Yet to the patient, most of whom experience the procedure only once, undergoing the operation can give rise to anxiety. The survival rate is actually very high. Less than 5 percent mortality in the first thirty days and less than 8…

Read More

Widow Maker — The Left Main Coronary Artery

I have had high cholesterol all my life – stratospheric – in the mid-300 range. I also can not tolerate statins. Lipitor, Mevacor, Crestor, Zetia, etc. I tried them all. At one point, I signed up with the lipid clinic. Under a doctor’s direction, I started taking massive dosages of statins. My cholesterol totals were…

Read More

Catholic Growiing Up — Doubtful Growing Old

#catholic #religion #mass #catholiceducation #childabuse I was raised Catholic. I look back in amazement to my boyhood when reasoning, educated adults imposed pointless regimentation on children in the name of religion. The Church, gratefully, has changed over the years. But in the early and mid-twentieth century, adults often invoked faith to justify the harsh treatment…

Read More

Viral Mythology Explores How Myths Are Created and Broadcast

The subtitle to Viral Mythology, by Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman, reads “How the truth of the ancients was encoded and passed down through legend, art, and architecture.” The authors present an ambitious explanation of how and why the ancient myths and those we create today continue to roll forward in time often without…

Read More