GARY A. HORVITZ

Mary, I am so disappointed not to see you at the reunion event last night. I was really looking forward to it. Martha Usry thought there might be some illness preventing you from joining us. I've been in Durham for the past 6 years. If we miss you this weekend, maybe we can schedule some time to catch up. I would like that. Contact me at gary@spontaneouspresence.net.

Posted on: Aug 08, 2023 at 4:33 AM

Posted on: Jul 23, 2023 at 9:53 AM

Hey Bill, Hannah Nicholson informed me of a monthly meeting of classmates for lunch somewhere. I asked her to include me in the distribution list. She referred me to you. I don't know how you do this but if you need my email, let me know, please. Appreciate it.

Posted on: Jul 17, 2023 at 5:11 PM

Hi Hannah, not aware of this lunch, but attendance may be possible. When and where?
GH

Posted on: Jul 16, 2023 at 5:21 PM

David Fore,
It was refreshing to read your message about this time of life, particularly calling it a
‘stage’ of wisdom. I would go further and define that wisdom as a period of shedding the accumulated layers of our lifelong project, the creation of identity.

When mortality begins to whisper in our ears, as we lose others who were once part of our lives and sense either real or impending losses of function within ourselves or encounter conditions which portend future losses, we are inclined to the very question you raise. Are we satisfied? What have we accomplished? What is left undone? Is there something I will grieve at the end of life?

Here, the response we choose is everything. Wisdom comes from releasing our lingering grasping for ‘accomplishments,’ continuously defending the armor of the separate self, the fantasy of exercising our ‘will,’ the seduction of whatever we imagine embodies any permanence whatsoever. Wisdom is realizing that true freedom lies in resisting seduction by either the illusion of permanence or the reality of impermanence. Wisdom settles ever more deeply into gratitude, community, forgiveness, into expansive grace raining down upon us from an ineffable source. Wisdom realizes that meaning has always been available, has never been inaccessible or in short supply. Wisdom deliberately moves into a process of reversing the lifetime of effort devoted to differentiating ourselves from others in favor of the living knowledge of what we share with all others. If we are successful, we may avoid the compressed and possibly terrifying non-negotiable imposition of that process at the end of life. By this practice, we smooth our way.

The tradition in which I am immersed regards life as a dream. From within that dream, in every moment, nothing is ever missing, life is always complete just as it is. Even time has no true meaning. There is no value in regret. We bask in timeless sunshine.

Posted on: Aug 08, 2022 at 4:33 AM

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Posted on: Aug 08, 2016 at 4:33 AM

Posted on: Jul 20, 2015 at 1:56 PM