Several years ago, I spent 10 days at Buddhist retreat in Berkley. Naturally, there was much talk about good and bad karma — the notion that we reap what we sow. Good deeds will attract good outcomes; bad deeds will attract bad outcomes. Emotionally, the sentiment satisfies my d

A friend changed the lunch venue on me the other day from a restaurant I knew well to one I didn’t. Not wanting to struggle with maps and downtown traffic, I suggested we postpone but my friend insisted. So, though I was reluctant, I wended my way along an unfamiliar route to find m

After 35 years on the bench, a federal appeals court judge is facing the sexual harassment charges of four women. Three staffers said he showed them pornographic photos in his office.  A fourth complained he suggested she workout naked.  (“The U. S. at a glance…” The Week, Dec

Japan, a country at the forefront of robotics, has come up with a solution for loneliness.  No doubt robot companions are in our foreseeable future, but the Japanese, like the rest of us, know it’s no substitute for genuine contact. That’s why a company in that country has come u

Sitting down to coffee with a woman at the retirement center the other day, she remarked about the crane working on the tower of a building nearby. I’d never seen the crane move and as we have a similar view, I asked how she came to see the work being done.  “Oh.” She smiled. 

One afternoon, as a child out for a walk with my mother, I stepped on a bee. She assumed I’d done it deliberately, and perhaps I had. I was very young. I can’t remember. But I can remember how I felt when she asked me to imagine what the bee must have experienced when I trod on i

At the retirement center the other day, I inadvertently offended a frail, elderly woman without meaning to. Looking into her eyes, I saw the distress I’d caused and offered her a smile as well as an apology. The smile seemed to have helped. Walking away, I wondered what a robot woul

A quiet revolution took place in medicine at the beginning of the year which patients may have noticed but couldn’t explain.  The federal electronic health records regulations (HER) went into effect January 1.  The regulations  mandate that all medical offices go paperless, a

The morning after my second cataract surgery, I stood on the street in front of my retirement center, waiting for a ride to see my eye doctor.  Soon a group of  residents shot through the entrance  on their way to an exercise class.  Seeing the pirate’s patch over my right eye,

No long after I moved into my retirement center,  I found myself visiting a new friend in the assisted living section.  As he and I talked, a woman joined us.  I judged her to be in her 90s, though she had the svelte body of a dancer and a pretty face.  I asked if she’d ever bee