Life, Death, and Other Inconvenient Truths

Preface xiii
Executive Summary: A Rhyming Lore of the Human Condition xvii
1 Action 1
The native hue of resolution. The pale cast of thought. And lose the name of action.
2 Ambition 5
Pelf and place. A small goat.
3 Anxiety 9
Possession. What you know you don't know can hurt you. What-me worry? Yes.
4 Beauty 13
The imminence of a revelation. Evolutionary bait and switch. Between the world and a grain of sand. The pathos of things. The seven sad senses of beauty.
5 Children (The Raising of) 19
Be good. Plan B. Other ways to be.
6 Complexity 23
The dark forest. A spotlight shines on an enigma. Back in the forest.
7 Consciousness 29
The Tempest in a teapot. The insubstantial pageant. We are such stuff as dreams are made on. The splendor and the misery.
8 Death 35
The tragic sense of life. The Switch. Still The Switch. Only in silence the word.
9 Empathy 41
To em or not to em. Us and Them. From ordinary household objects.
10 Emptiness 45
Einstein meets the Buddha. Enter Borges.
11 Evolution 49
The mountains and the monsoon. A universal history of iniquity. Definitely maybe.
12 Existence 55
A bit of Talmudic existentialism. I think, therefore I ache. The mindfulness ruse.
13 Fear 59
Where the wild things are. True grit. We have seen the enemy.
14 Free Will 63
Complications. Misapprehension. Chance. Necessity. Implications.
15 Happiness 69
Machineries of joy and sorrow. Happiness fast and slow. The dark side of happiness.
16 Home 73
No home. No homeland. No rest. No end.
17 Language 79
The tentacles of intent. The Ring of Fire. Gaming the Game. Big Two-Hearted River.
18 Love 87
What a lovely way to burn. Che cosa e amor. Tuqburni.
19 Mathematics 93
Unreasonable effectiveness. Ineffectiveness of reason. But time and chance happeneth to them all.
20 Memory 99
The waters of Naihe. Some work of noble note. Across the universe. The Time Warp again. All memory and fate.
21 Morality 105
Silentio

Shimon Edelman