love | Wright's Writing

Aug 12, 20204 min read

Fragments on the phenomenology of sexual attraction

[From 2010.] The psychology of sex is fascinating. For example, why are women sometimes attracted to “innocent” young men, “pure,”...

Jul 16, 20197 min read

Thoughts from the dark

Lugubrious. That's the word for how I'm feeling tonight. That and self-indulgent. So I thought I'd write a blog post. These midnight...

Dec 27, 20183 min read

The meaning of life

[Excerpts from this book. See also this blog post, "Excerpts on happiness."] The meaning of life?— Life is not totally “meaningless.”...

Jul 14, 20166 min read

"Awakenings," and the power of music

[From 2008.] Reading Oliver Sacks’s Awakenings, which is about his experiences with post-encephalitic, Parkinsonian patients. It’s a good...

Jun 23, 20162 min read

The utility of "God"

I attended my first Episcopalian service last night [in April 2010]. It was Maundy Thursday, so we did the whole foot-washing thing and...

Jan 22, 20163 min read

On the use and abuse of “perspective” for life

[Excerpt from this book.] There are delights and dangers in adopting a broad perspective on oneself and one’s society. Looking at the...

Jan 4, 20166 min read

Two interpretations of love

Max Scheler’s Ressentiment (1912), while dated and silly in some respects, is worth reading. Scheler is a semi-Nietzsche in his...

Aug 8, 20153 min read

Excerpts on happiness

It’s a cliché but it’s worth repeating: one cause of modern loneliness is the attitude of treating people as means to an end, namely...

Feb 18, 20152 min read

A moment of charity to Christianity

Karl Marx once said, “After all, we can forgive Christianity much because it taught us to love children.” Almost unbelievably, the...

Feb 15, 20152 min read

Christianity updated

One of the many ironies about contemporary Christians is that they tend to be supportive of capitalism. This isn’t surprising: from the...