With the Internet, “the promise is of infinite knowledge, but what’s delivered is infinite information, and the two are hardly the same…. Brain studies show that true learning is largely an unconscious process. If we’re inundated with data, our brains’ synthesizing functions are overwhelmed by the effort to keep up. And the original purpose – deeper knowledge of the subject – is lost….
I’m not wishing the Internet away. It has become so integral to my work – to my life – that I honestly can’t recall what I did without it…. [Yet] as alluring as we can find the perpetual pursuit of little thoughts, the net result may only be to prevent us from forming the big ones.”
– Peggy Orenstein
NY Times Magazine, October 25, 2009

“It’s funny because it’s true.”

(from the article) “The Referendum is a phenomenon typical of (but not limited to) midlife, whereby people, increasingly aware of the finiteness of their time in the world, the limitations placed on them by their choices so far, and the narrowing options remaining to them, start judging their peers’ differing choices with reactions ranging from envy to contempt.”

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

~Robert Frost, from Reluctance

If you have chronic pain (back pain or otherwise) that the “established” medical profession can’t seem to fix, you might try the three steps below.  I and two others I know personally have been cured of chronic pain (foot, back and neck, respectively) by Dr. Sarno’s program.

1. Read this Wikipedia entry about Dr. Sarno.
2. Buy and read his first book.
3. Buy, watch and follow the instructions in his video (and stick with it.)

Good luck.  (Note:  I’m not a doctor, and I am in no way associated with Dr. Sarno and don’t make any money from sales of his books/video!  I had chronic foot pain for almost two years, saw many doctors, and was even told I might need foot surgery.  After two people (one a chiropractor!) referred me to Dr. Sarno’s book, the pain went away in about 3 months and has been gone now for over 6 years.)

I don’t know who started it, but I love the fact that whenever people on a boat or ship pass you (especially when you yourself are on a separate boat or ship), you wave to each other. You sometimes see this phenomenon with people on those open-top tour buses as well. There you are standing on a city corner, stewing about something and waiting for the light to change, when a bright red, double-decker bus with no roof (or sometimes shaped like a duck) glides by, full of smiling faces and hands waving your way. Only the Scrooges resist waving back.

What’s odd is that this phenomenon simply doesn’t translate to other public arenas, even if it’s the exact same people involved. Sitting on a crowded city bus, my back to the window, facing the people sitting just a few feet away, I imagine that if I started smiling and waving, at least one of them would come over, punch me directly in the face, and ask me (rhetorically) what the hell was wrong with me.

People are strange when you’re a stranger, unless you’re on a boat, or a tour bus shaped like a duck.

				Wake up.
						   …
				Wake up.
						   …
		    You are sleeping.
						   Yes.
You have been asleep forever.
						   Yes.
        You can wake up now,
                        if you wish.
						   I can?
        But you will have to go
            to sleep again later.
						   Oh.  What if I don’t wake up
                                                   now?
Then you will sleep forever.
						   And what happens after I wake
                                                   up?
    It is up to you.  You will be
awake.  For a time.  And then
      you will go back to sleep.
						   Forever?
					Yes.
						   So continue sleeping forever,
                                                   or be awake and then
                                                   sleep forever?
					Yes.
						   Seems like any easy choice.
You would like to be awake,
                                  then?
						   Yes.
	In spite of everything?
						   Yes.  Very much so.  Yes.

“O.K., let’s slowly lower in the grant money.”
Todd Bearson
Arlington, Mass.

(From The New Yorker, July 20, 2009)

I don’t mean to promote ETrade, but I love these, particularly the facial expression on “Learn to fly again!”

And the official “outtakes.”