How do you get ready to love Tolstoy?
January 11, 2017
“Childhood reading is magic.” “Huck and Jim on the raft. Scout in the courtroom. The images in my mind’s eye I created as a child reading those books are still inside me. I can call them up even now, as I sit using the free Wi-Fi at this coffee shop in Austin, Texas. That’s a miracle! I believe reading is one of the most special — and most crucial — pleasures of childhood. If I hadn’t read Judy Blume as a kid, I’d never have been able to love Tolstoy as an adult.”
“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”
December 23, 2016
Tis the season—Happy New Year. Understandably people are preoccupied with happiness— how to be happy, how to stay happy, how to increase the amount of happiness you have in your life. A word that leaps out of any conversation or writing about happiness is gratitude. What place does gratitude play in a person’s happiness quotient? […]
“I like good strong words that mean something.”
November 29, 2016
Louisa May Alcott would be 184 years old today. Little Women is the evergreen book many young girls cut their teeth on. I most identified with Jo, who said, “I like good strong words that mean something.” And who did you most identify with? This might be an example of how one good question can […]
“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
November 14, 2016
I would like to think Leonard Cohen is singing ‘Hallelujah’ today in honor of William Steig’s 107th birthday. The world is diminished with the loss of Leonard Cohen. Leon Wieseltier’s memorable words (NYT) captured his essence, which is no small feat. Cohen managed to combine a sense of absurdity with a sense of the significance. […]
Story fires the imagination and stirs the soul
October 30, 2016
Neuroeconomist Paul Zak has found that hearing a story—a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end—causes our brains to release cortisol and oxytocin. These chemicals trigger the uniquely human ability to connect, empathize, and understand. Story is literally in our DNA. People are attracted to stories, we’re social creatures and we relate to other people, […]
