Summer \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0First Harvest Moon<\/p>\n
Last time the Woollies gathered at Woodfire Grill we got on the topic of Alzheimers. \u00a0Warren said many people, around two years in, gain a sense of peace about it. \u00a0“I don’t want to gain peace.” one of us said. \u00a0That interchange stayed with me, bouncing around, providing background when I read these two quotes recently.<\/p>\n
The first one is from a blog I’ve referenced. \u00a0A link to it is on the right and in the quote. The second is from an NYT’s book review.<\/p>\n
“In the last month or two, some of that special feeling\u2014my ability to live in the present<\/strong>, my sense<\/strong> that my life is worthwhile even if I can\u2019t accomplish that much<\/strong>, my sense of joy in living\u2014has been diluted, and I\u2019ve wondered why.\u00a0\u00a0Had I slipped back into old patterns, lost the new sense of emotional richness?” \u00a0\u00a0Watching the Lights Go Out<\/a>\u00a0 July 6, 2013<\/p>\n “Like Freud, Mr. Grosz is fond of literary allusions, and he\u2019s nimble at excavating the psychological subtext of literary classics. He reads Dickens\u2019s \u201cChristmas Carol\u201d as \u201ca story about an extraordinary psychological transformation.\u201d One of the lessons it teaches, he argues, is that \u201cScrooge can\u2019t redo his past, nor can he be certain of the future. Waking on Christmas morning, thinking in a new way, he can change his present \u2014 change can only take place in the here and now<\/strong>.” \u00a0 NYT book review<\/a> of the Examined Life by Stephen Grosz<\/p>\n No, I’m not going to be here now. \u00a0Not that. \u00a0I’m sensing in these two quotes and in the conversation at the Woollies a profound realization, the one behind the Zen insistence on the now and, I think, these two observations as well. \u00a0It’s remarked on most clearly in the first quote. \u00a0“my sense…my life is worthwhile even if I can’t accomplish that much…” \u00a0There it is. \u00a0Right under our nose.<\/p>\n The key to inner peace is not so much living in the present, although that has obvious psychodynamic benefits, but in grasping our true place in the cosmos. \u00a0Our achievements do not define us. \u00a0Our capacity to do and act does not define us. \u00a0Our existence, our very ordinary existence, is sufficient. \u00a0Enough. \u00a0Adequate. \u00a0Good enough. \u00a0That’s what the author of the Watching the Lights Go Out discovers, that’s what Grosz suggests when in his reading of the Christmas Carol. \u00a0It was not Scrooge’s skills as a money lender and miser that he needed, but the simple acts of human kindness that he could engage in Christmas morning. \u00a0He only had to be Scrooge, not a role, bad or good.<\/p>\n And, in the end, if we get to this realization through Zen, knowing ourselves, psychoanalysis or Alzheimer’s, is the quality any different?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summer \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0First Harvest Moon Last time the Woollies gathered at Woodfire Grill we got on the topic of Alzheimers. \u00a0Warren said many people, around two years … Continue reading Good Enough<\/span>