About

This blog of mine is about what interests me, in chronological order, without unifying principle or particular purpose. It’s an open notebook.

The title is a big umbrella which covers topics from philosophy, psychology, and – of course – literature. Novels, plays, movies, and poetry (and, yes, history, the arts, and – Oh yeah – science and math..) all give special access to the minds of others past and present, holding them up for our inspection.

And they all hold up little mirrors in which we can glimpse ourselves…

There’s an appealing theory out there that evolution’s accidental gift of the big brain has made our successful survival possible.

We need it, the theory goes, to deal with the selfish, kindly, mean, generous, self-serving, supportive, devious, honest, downright vicious and (maybe, occasionally, sorta, kinda, sometimes) loving  homines sapientes around us.

Well, you know all this from dealing with all those difficult people in your life, all of whom consider you one of the difficult people in their lives…

So we start….