The Saunterer

Dr. Seuss's reason not the grieve over the loss of a beloved pet

    There is a center in the brain for ideas that move us, and Tennyson’s “'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” even though true, does not reach into it. Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), however, knew how to put it so it would:

    Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.

    For a brief biography of Theodor Geisel, click here. For images of or relating to Theodor Geisel, click here.

Joan Acocella on profanity as good medicine

    Reviewing two new books on swearing (What the F, by Benjamin K. Bergen, Basic Books, and In Praise of Profanity, by Michael Adams, Oxford University Press), Joan Acocella tells of how swearwords can overcome not just the pain of receiving a bad grade or traffic ticket, say, but physical pain:

    For example, they help us endure pain. In one widely cited experiment, subjects were instructed to plunge a hand into ice-cold water and keep it there as long as they could. Half were told that they could utter a swearword while doing this, if they wanted to; the other half were told to say some harmless word like wood. The swearing subjects were able to keep their hands in the water significantly longer than the pure-mouthed group.

    (Quoted from “‘Fuck’ing Around” by Joan Acocella, page 24 of the February 9, 2017, issue of The New York Review of Books.)
For a brief biography of Joan Acocella, click here. For images of or relating to Joan Acocella, click here.

René Dubos on how use of the earth for economic enrichment is unacceptable

    We all know it will destroy the earth. René Dubos tells of the second way; it will destroy us:

    A relationship to the earth based only on its use for economic enrichment is bound to result not only in its degradation but also in the devaluation of human life. This is a perversion which, if not soon corrected, will become a fatal disease of technological societies.

    (Quoted from page 351 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)
    For a brief biography of René Dubos, click here. For images of or relating to René Dubos, click here.