• Fiction

    The Allure of Autocracy: Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America”

    February 23, 2019 - By 

    “France has been defeated, and despite the propaganda and confusion of recent months, it is now obvious that England is losing the war. (Audience cheers loudly.) I have been forced to the conclusion that we cannot win this war for England regardless of how much assistance we send. That is why the America First Committee has been formed.” That’s from a speech in Manhattan by American aviation hero Charles Lindbergh in 1940, arguing passionately against American intervention in World War II. Lindbergh’s staunch isolationism was hardly an aberration in American life at the time. Much of the country was torn about how…

  • General Nonfiction - Psychology

    Life, Aging, Death, Self:
    Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal”

    February 17, 2019 - By 

    The problem isn’t so much that in the end, we die. It’s in all the time leading up to the end. Not death, but severe decline is what puts fear in our hearts. A long debilitating illness or just aging that cuts us off progressively (regressively, come to think of it) from all that we love. We all peak physically at some 30 years of age, but robustness and increased life satisfaction can persist for decades longer as we go about building our lives, hopefully coming to accept our aging and its limitations with equanimity and often, good doses of…

  • Music - Religion

    Brilliant Songs #6: Chuck Brodsky’s
    “We Are Each Other’s Angels”

    February 8, 2019 - By 

    I came across this song just a few weeks ago, courtesy of Facebook friend Eric Gray, who had just organized a house concert by Chuck Brodsky in San Francisco. Eric is a music guy, as well as a baseball guy (powerful combo…), so I of course investigated Mr. Brodsky, went on You Tube, and here we are, with Brilliant Song #6 in this occasional series. Ironically, I was moved to write about it when checking in, as a kind of pop culture imperative, with the Super Bowl halftime show the other day. When a band I had never heard of,…

  • Poetry

    Everyday Ecstasy: A Mary Oliver Appreciation

    February 3, 2019 - By 

    When poet Mary Oliver died a couple of weeks ago, I suspect many readers responded much like I did: “Oh, no!” That’s an almost universal response when anyone we know well dies suddenly—and we are both surprised and crestfallen. If the deceased is just an acquaintance or a public figure whom we don’t know personally, our response tends to be more muted: “Gosh, that’s too bad.” But Mary Oliver? “Oh, no!!” Part of this, for those familiar with her work, has to do with the sheer fact that writers whom we enjoy and tend to go back to wind up entering our brains and our…