Aging: the coda to life’s mythic themes

This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register.

“He’s gotten completely paranoid and is speaking in vernacular I don’t recognize,” my friend explained slowly and evenly, though clearly in an anxious state.  “The psychiatrist put him on medication, and I don’t know why.  I think he’s having a bad reaction.” Continue reading “Aging: the coda to life’s mythic themes”

A Father’s Tale

This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register.

Because I often emphasize the importance of mothers, mothering and the maternal, it may appear that I completely disregard the masculine and paternal.  I’ll clarify that by distinguishing between an actual mother and a maternal function.  Parental functions may be construed as active or passive, directive or receptive, calming or stimulating, separating or merging. Continue reading “A Father’s Tale”

Sadness and Mourning

This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register

A screenwriter friend gave me an article discussing the salutary aspects of sadness and the ways in which our contemporary culture tends to quickly erase it or prematurely foreclose upon its gritty psychological usefulness in a quest for perennial cheery happiness.  As if happiness were a concrete object one could hold instead of a transitory state of being, one of many, that links specific inner notations of experience with external ones. Continue reading “Sadness and Mourning”

Inside Out

This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register.

We are too often saturated with regrettable accounts of public figures exposed in salacious but banal trysts.  Illicit sex sells.  What a thumping bore. Continue reading “Inside Out”

The Importance of Mutuality in Relationships

A relationship, by design, is a two-person field.  Actually more if you consider all the people inhabiting your mind.  With mom, dad and your third grade teacher with the quivering upper arms, it’s a pretty crowded place.  You are the unique product of all your relationships.  This internal constellation of characters forming your identity is an entire world. Continue reading “The Importance of Mutuality in Relationships”