Film: Down the Tube

the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Thus his “real” birthday had been February 11, not February 22. Surely the stars could be adjusted for this? She asked some more astrologically adept friends, though I forget their verdict.

M. and my hospital stay gave me an important clue to New Age “beliefs”— always weird, and sometimes pernicious on their face. Yet they should also be judged by what the believer means by embracing them. For grosser sorts, they are ways of fulfilling desires (meditate your way to wealth). For gentle souls, they are forms for expressing compassion. When my diagnosis was uncertain, M. “scanned” me and concluded that there was nothing wrong. Something was very wrong, it turned out, though soon enough cured. But she had wanted it to be right; her extra-senses had followed her heart. And once I fell into the toils of hospitalization, she was there whenever I needed her to provide this-worldly comfort.

JS

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John Simon

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the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Thus his “real” birthday had been February 11, not February 22. Surely the stars could be adjusted for this? She asked some more astrologically adept friends, though I forget their verdict.

M. and my hospital stay gave me an important clue to New Age “beliefs”— always weird, and sometimes pernicious on their face. Yet they should also be judged by what the believer means by embracing them. For grosser sorts, they are ways of fulfilling desires (meditate your way to wealth). For gentle souls, they are forms for expressing compassion. When my diagnosis was uncertain, M. “scanned” me and concluded that there was nothing wrong. Something was very wrong, it turned out, though soon enough cured. But she had wanted it to be right; her extra-senses had followed her heart. And once I fell into the toils of hospitalization, she was there whenever I needed her to provide this-worldly comfort.