In his latest On the Square column , Russell E. Saltzman reflects on death and denial:
This has been a death-obsessed year for me, and no fun. Actually its been a couple of those years, starting in 2009. It has become an intrusive preoccupation. I reread some of my contributions on these pages and I seem stuck on the subject. Death shows up in only five of thirty-three articles; six of thirty-four if you count this piece. Thats like, what, sixteen percent? Not so bad, really, given that it looms so large in my mind. Yet I remember thinking while writing the other eighty-four percent, At least Im not talking about death.
Also today, Matthew Hennessey on John Lennons bad theology :
As the 1960s became the 1970s, Lennons legion of admirers would follow him in his forays into Indian mysticism, transcendental meditation, and primal therapy. In 1970, now a post-hippie but still a seeker, Lennon sang of a personal god that was neither omniscient, transcendental, nor redemptive, but merely a concept by which we measure our pain. This clever bit of pop theology was instantly embraced by an exhausted and defeated flower-power generation searching for moral renewal at the dawn of the new decade.