All motion is curved and all curvature is spiral.
Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives - we are each of us unique.
There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate - the genetic and neural fate - of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.
Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does-humans are a musical species.
In examining disease, we gain wisdom about anatomy and physiology and biology. In examining the person with disease, we gain wisdom about life.
To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future; the freedom to get beyond ourselves. . . in states of mind that allow us to rise above our immediate surroundings and see the beauty and value of the world we live in.
Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.
The most depressing thing about blogging is watching so-called 'citizen journalists' turn in to little more than easily offended partisan hacks. Any remark that is slightly less than completely and totally scripted and can give the slightest opportunity to offend some delicate soul somewhere is used to set off a series of partisan screeches and cries of outrage that would make the Church Lady jealous.
No one-liner can ever be optimal.
God exposes your sin. . . And you see yourself as small as you are in the presence of a holy God.
Let us bring something new to the table. Let us use our pain always to remember the others, bring them into the conversation, and get beyond the stereotypes and prejudices that create injustice all over the world.