A Soulful Journey

The late critic Anatole Broyard once surveyed several books on the subject of love.  His conclusions: Most of what we “know” about love derives from works of fiction.  Moreover, he claimed, one theme dominates all discussions of the subject. Love requires an element of “difficulty” if it is to be sustained. The Mishna parses this as, "According to the effort is the reward." - Avot 6

Anatole Broyard was the editor of the New York Times Book Review. When his doctor diagnosed prostate cancer, he wrote: “When you learn that your life is threatened, you can turn toward this knowledge or away from it.  I turned toward it. ... It sounds trite, yet I can only say then I realized the first time that I didn’t have forever. … Nothing was casual anymore… I understood that living itself had a deadline. How can you not be curious about the world? The street, houses, trees, shops, and movement and the stillness. When my wife media hamburger the other day, I thought it was the most fabulous hamburger in the world! This is how life ought to be without the threat of death hanging over us.

Anatole Broyard, the former editor of the New York Times Book Review, wrote after his doctor diagnosed him with prostate cancer, " When you learn that your life is threatened, you can turn toward this knowledge or away from it.  It turned toward it...it sounds trite, yet I can only say that I realized for the first time that I don't have forever...nothing was casual anymore.  I understood that living itself has a deadline.  How can you not be curious about the world?  The streets, the houses, the trees, the shops, the movement and the stillness...When my wife made me me a hamburger the other day, I thought it was the most fabulous hamburger in the history of the world."