Tag: psychology
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Sensitivity Is a Virtue
Sensitivity Is a Virtue, collage on book cover, 2022 We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. Anaïs Nin I sometimes think I’ve grown more sensitive as I’ve gotten older. Indeed, I seem to have reached that age at which a great deal of popular culture now offends my sensibilities, […]
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Eye, Heart, and Mind
Simplicity, paper collage, 2022 Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, this is me and the damned world can go to hell. Rollo May When I first started The Used Life in April 2017, I wanted to create a space in which to not only […]
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Part of the Silence
Mourning Dove In order to see birds, it is necessary to become a part of the silence. Robert Lynd I was recently told that my birdwatching hobby is “quaint”. Whether this particular comment was intended to be complimentary or not (I think not), I chose to take it that way. I have, it seems, reached […]
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House of Cards
House of Cards, mixed media collage, 2021 I’ve spent time over the past several days working with Victorian cabinet cards and found photographs. What I like most about this particular medium (aside from the fact that it’s inherently playful and fun) is the challenge. If you’re familiar with cabinet cards, you know they are Victorian-era […]
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On Killer Instincts
You’re a Dream, mixed media collage, 2021 In Women Who Run With the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estés discusses the “life-death-life” aspects of our nature—the idea that life, in its fullest form (and woman, in her fullest form) is a series of deaths and rebirths. It is this concept of “life-death-life” that got me thinking about […]
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On Gratitude
It seems popular these days to speak of gratitude as an almost magical inner experience. As if feeling thankful is, quite literally, some sort of magnet, a means of attracting the good life and all it affords. That is, love, abundance, freedom, and general life satisfaction. I emphatically disagree with this viewpoint. Of course, I’ve […]
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Of Sacred Seasons
This is time of year, my creativity seems to transform. Becomes almost corporeal—that is, more hands-on, more nurturing, more intensely connected to the rhythms of nature. Instead of spending my days in the writing room tinkering with poetry or experiments in collage, I find myself outdoors tending to the garden, to the wildlife that lives […]
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On the Art of Responsibility
Why not make a daily pleasure out of a daily necessity? Peter Mayle There are a number of reasons why I love reading Peter Mayle’s narratives of life in Provence. None the least of which is the culinary adventure that invariably takes center stage in every story. Three-hour lunches over bottles of rosé, assorted goat’s […]
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On Collecting Things
When it comes to collecting behavior, I wouldn’t describe myself as a tried-and-true hobbyist. In fact, there isn’t one particular object or category of objects that generally fascinates me for long. And while I might go through phases in which I’m enamored by, say, watches, vintage magazines, or vinyl records, the likelihood that I would […]
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Beyond Suffering
I felt compelled to write this post because of a conversation I had yesterday with fellow blogger, Gabriela. In responding to issues I raised in a recent post on religion and personality, she asked me how I felt about the notion that “life is suffering,” especially as it relates to the central meaning I ascribe […]
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