Tiger Woods finished fourth in a PGA tournament this past weekend. He’s back. Or is he? Tiger’s last win came in 2013 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. His last major championship was the 2008 US Open. Shortly thereafter (Thanksgiving of 2009) Woods famously crashed his car outside his Florida mansion, was exposed as a serial cheater […]
PZ’s Podcast: 8 Days a Week
EPISODE 240
I don’t talk about romantic love because it is worshipful in its own right. I talk about romantic love because it is the closest signpost we have to God.
Whether it’s the Beatles (“Eight Days a Week”) or Hugo (“The Hunchback of Notre Dame”) or Wagner (“Tannhauser”) or Jimmy Webb (“Wichita Lineman”) or James Gould Cozzens (“By Love Possessed”), the inspired listeners of the world have not failed to miss the Back Story, underneath all our ‘narratives’ and front stories, of the noble search for love and merger, the absolutely right and proper desire of every human person to merge with another human person. This Back Story underwrites every natural life. If you won’t see it — because everybody can see it — then your life will end on a note of unconquerable wistfulness.
Yet romantic life is never quite right! It is always a little “off”. This is because it calls the almost-Absolute — i.e., another human being — the Absolute — i.e., God. Romantic love, when not subsumed to God, i n e v i t a b l y disappoints, because it takes place between bodies, which decline and die; and it takes place in time, which “must have a stop” (Shakespeare/Huxley). In other words, romantic love is an almost exact dress rehearsal of the Real Thing, but not the Real Thing itself.
That is why this podcast begins with “Eight Days a Week” but ends with “Tell Me Why (You Cry)”. LUV U!
Mama Holy’s Handbag
The New York Times recently published an article about the physiological and psychological changes that happen to women when they become mothers. This reminded me of a conversation I had with my son when he was in preschool about irreversible change, when he was learning about tadpoles and caterpillars. “When you became a mommy,” he […]
Performance, Death, and Grace in Sing
Buster Moon desperately wants to save his theater… and himself. When he was a young koala, his parents took him to see a stage production in which a sensational Suffolk sheep named Nana Noodleman (voiced by Jennifer Hudson) sang about ‘finding a way home’ and ‘carrying a weight’ as she gracefully performed an operatic rendition […]
Thirteen Ways of Looking at an Equal Marriage
On Sunday, The New York Times Magazine published an article by Lori Gottleib about marriage equality. No, not that kind. This article had the search-engine-optimized headline: “Does a More Equal Marriage Mean Less Sex?” Like many New York Times trend pieces, the article combines social science data with anecdotes from anonymous friend-sources to provoke its […]
Don’t Gimme Shelter
If I burden myself with a little help-mate during my adventures, it is not out of sentiment or caprice – it is that he has many fine qualities of his own that he has overlooked in his obsession with me. Indeed, any reputation I have for mental acuity and sharpness comes, in truth, from the […]
The Ever Present Past of the Beatles (and the Saddest Record of the Year)
They say you can tell a lot about a person by their favorite Beatle. Cuddly Paul, edgy John, moody George, or funny Ringo, you choose the one you either most readily identify with, or would most like to identify with. Of course, having to name only one is a dodgy practice in the first place, […]
Noel Gallagher Brings it on Down to Pressure Pressure Pressure
Leave it to Noel Gallagher. The man is not only an open book, he’s an open page-turner. That is, interviews with the erstwhile Oasis songwriter are rarely boring – Noel was Russell Brand’s inspiration for the half-outrageous/half-outrageously wise Aldous Snow after all – and with his first solo album on the horizon, they’ve been easy […]
Can’t Buy Me Love, or Peace, or Happiness, or God
An oldie but a goodie from education guru and all around anti-judgement icon Alfie Kohn from The NY Times back in 1999, entitled “The High Price of Affluence.” You might say the insights here are fairly self-evident – money doesn’t buy happiness, yawn, i.e. the ultimate cultural truism that no one functionally believes – but […]
May Playlist
This month it’s a shameless pre-Summer pop mix… Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Listen, enjoy, rock out, go crazy – just as long as you don’t take your love to town: Day After Day – Julian Lennon Only Mama Knows – Paul McCartney Janie, Don’t Take Your Love To Town – Jon Bon […]
October Playlist
1. I’m Sorry – Hall & Oates 2. Meat City – John Lennon 3. Soily – Wings 4. Sowing The Seeds Of Love – Tears For Fears 5. 11th Dimension – Julian Casablancas 6. Last Dance – The Raveonettes 7. Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear 8. Jesus Christ – Big Star 9. Big Star Baby […]
