Loneliness, insomnia, and change: the fear of these is even worse than the reality.

Many of us are equal to life's emergencies who cannot bear its day-after-dayness.

Spiritual sloth, or acedia, was known as The Sin of the Middle Ages. It's the sin of my middle age, too.

Women gather together to wear silly hats, eat dainty food, and forget how unresponsive their husbands are. Men gather to talk sports, eat heavy food, and forget how demanding their wives are. Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun.

Healthy parakeets have the nervous energy of tennis players.

The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive - perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine.

In life, as in restaurants, we swallow a lot of indigestible stuff just because it comes with the dinner.