It can be hard to take a compliment gracefully. Sometimes we feel undeserving. Other times we wonder if we are being manipulated. There are times we feel a compliment is discordant with our actual achievement, such as when veterans of recent wars
The Samurai, ISIS and Glory
Reading Yukio Mishima’s novel, Runaway Horses, about failed Samurai rebellions in nineteenth and twentieth century Japan, has caused me to look at ISIS from a safe distance. In both cases, the ideology is violent and the premature deaths of its
An Oral History Experience
Last week I recorded a version of my life story for a New York Public Library oral history project, an experience that caused me to think about how we communicate who we are. (The recordings are being posted here, and I assume mine will be sometime
The Social Dilemma of Metaphor
Here are two headlines from the New York Times in the past two months: “Kids Can’t Learn Who Can’t See” (May 15, 2015, an opinion piece promoting early vision care) “Blind to a Child’s Obesity” (June 16, 2015, about parents who