To Struggle, by Lee van Laer
Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, Prado, Madrid Struggle To exert one’s physical strength in persistent striving against an opposing force. To…
A Formal Feeling Comes
Bonfire, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” writes Emily Dickinson. “The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs.” After a great shock or…
On Being Nobody…and No One, by Tracy Cochran
Ivan Aivazovsky, Between the Waves, 1898 How deeply we fear being nobody. One way to think of the ego is as a defense against pain, particularly…
The Wizard of Oz as a Parable, by Lillian Firestone
The Wizard of Oz (MGM Studios, 1939) What makes the Wizard of Oz an iconic American tale that has entered into the language? Some expressions are…