Improvisation can be either a last resort or an established way of evoking creativity.

A suprising number of physicians manage to continue to care about persons even after the rigors of medical training.

Improvisation and new learning are not private processes; they are shared with others at every age. We are called to join in a dance whose steps must be learned along the way, so it is important to attend and respond. Even in uncertainty, we are responsible for our steps.

Of any stopping place in life, it is good to ask whether it will be a good place from which to go on as well as a good place to remain.

The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it.

Every loss recapitulates earlier losses, but every affirmation of identity echoes earlier moments of clarity.

When any relationship is characterized by difference, particularly a disparity in power, there remains a tendency to model it on the parent-child-relationship. Even protectiveness and benevolence toward the poor, toward minorities, and especially toward women have involved equating them with children.