The Useless Tree

Aidan

  • Seventeen

    Yesterday was Aidan's seventeenth birthday. We bought a small tree, an evergreen that will stand out against the bare winter solitude, to plant in our backyard, next to the other trees that remember him and remind us of his presence.… Continue reading

  • 1000 Posts

        I do not do much bloggy self-reflection on the presence or meaning of this site, not much beyond my anniversary posts.  But today a milestone has been reached and should be mentioned.  The last post below was the 1000th… Continue reading

  • Two Years

        Today is the second anniversary of Aidan’s death.  It seems longer.  Time has a way of extending and transforming as the years click by.  I can still see him here with us, but his absence is palpable.  Indeed,… Continue reading

  • What Parents Owe Their Children

         This morning, listening to the radio, I heard a story about my former student, Nate Krissoff, and his father, Dr. Bill Krissoff.      Nate was in the Marines and was killed in Iraq on this day last… Continue reading

  • Assisted Suicide

        This past Sunday, the NYT Magazine ran a piece on assisted suicide.  As I started to read it, I thought it conjured up certain Confucian themes, but by the time I had finished it, I was definitely thinking… Continue reading

  • Another Taoist Thanksgiving

         Here we are again on my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving.  It is my third blogging Thanksgiving and I really cannot think of a better way to mark the occasion than with the post from my first blogging Thanksgiving.  There… Continue reading

  • Birthday Thoughts

         Today is Aidan’s birthday.       He would have been sixteen.      As I think about his life, and what he gave to me, a passage from Chuang Tzu comes to mind.  Without him, I would not… Continue reading

  • Without Him

         Aidan died a year ago today.  Below the jump is something I wrote a few months ago but could not find a publisher for.  I post it here as a part of his continuing presence in my life. Continue reading

  • Traveling

         I have long had some differences with certain sections of the Tao Te Ching.  At one point (I’m at home and all my copies are in the office), the text tells us that you do not need to… Continue reading

  • Broadway Tao

          Last week was my daughter’s thirteenth birthday – the first teenage year.  I took her into Manhattan, as I have done each of the prior three years, to see a Broadway show.  In fact, we saw two, a… Continue reading