I have compassion for all who suffer, especially for human beings, but also for animals. Though compassion can hurt the heart sometimes, my joy of life will live as long as I live; and I enthusiastically enjoy all that I can, while I can. I also help others when I can, just as others--especially my precious friends--have at times helped me.

SAYINGS I like:

When you spilled the milk, did it look like the moon?  (Zen)

What can I know? What may I hope? How should I live? Why must I suffer and die? (Immanuel Kant's encapsulation of the main questions of philosophy, with my addendum.)

QUOTATIONS I like:

"Reading maketh a full mind." --Francis Bacon

"Time is the thing.  Time is the main thing.  Time is the only thing.  How to spend time."  --Frank Zappa (in his last interview before his death from prostate cancer)

"Don't walk ahead of me.  I may not follow.  Don't walk behind me.  I may not lead.  Walk beside me.  And just be my friend." --Albert Camus

EDUCATION: In college, I had a double major, psychology and biology.  I hoped to become a research scientist in the neuro-sciences, preferably in the expanding new fields of psychobiology.  But I was a knowledge-hound, and took many more courses than I needed for a degree.  For example, my double major required two philosophy courses; there were in the curriculum twenty-three courses in philosophy--I took all of them.  I wasn't in a hurry.  I wanted to learn all that I could.  Of course, I also took all the literature and poetry courses, as well as all the science classes.

INTERESTS:  I love learning and esthetic experience of all kinds:

Science and math; Poetry and literature; Music and art; Psychology; Biology; Neurology; Anthropology; Philosophy; and everything else.  

I love the beauty of all things--especially the beauty and power of language; and the magical, miraculous beauty of women.

I love reading.  I love singing. 

I love women.  (I have to emphasize that.)

I like to play chess.  I like all kinds of board games. 

I enjoy eating and drinking and being merry. 

I like movies, and some of them I love. 

I love dancing. 

I enjoy picnics. 

I love people, especially my friends and family. 

I have compassion for others, regardles of what happens to me. 

I believe that sex is good, and not evil. 

I believe that kindness is good amd right, and unkindness is wrong and bad. 

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I pity the suffering. 

I forgive all except tyrants--and, sometimes, even them. 

I love to see the sky and smell the earth.  I love everything from flowers to stars. 

I love life.  I'm never bored.  I like sleeping, but I love waking up.

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Favorite Movies: *Bladerunner* starring Harrison Ford.  *Imposter* starring Gary Sinese.  And other movies also based on the works of SciFi genius Phillip K. Dick: *Total Recall* ; *Screamers*; *The Minority Report*; *Paycheck*; etc.  *Dead Poets Society* with Robin Williams.  *The Matrix* (the first one).  *The Paper Chase*.  *Flashdance*.  *Fame*.  *The Day The Earth Stood Still*.  The *Alien* series of movies.  *The Terminator* series of movies.  *Night of the Hunter* with Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters.  *The Bucket List*.  *As Good As It Gets*.  I like and love many, many more movies and films, of all kinds and genres.

Favorite TV shows: *Breaking Bad*.  *Six Feet Under * (I'm not kidding: sometimes it scares me or makes me cry, but it is a great show).  *Monk*.  *Heroes*.  *Jeopardy*.  *Bill Moyers's Journal*.  *Frontline*.  *Nova*.  *Nature*.  *Masterpiece Theater*.  *Live from Lincoln Center*.  *The Metropolitan Opera*.  *Antique Roadshow*.  *The History Detectives*.  *Secrets of the Dead*.  Almost every show on PBS.  All kinds of other-network shows I can't even think of right now, because I don't have time to watch them anymore.  Lots of old shows, like *Get Smart*; *Benny Hill*; *The Adventures of Superman*.

Favorite Music: The Beatles.  Steppenwolfe.  Led Zepplin.  The Rolling Stones.  The Zombies.  Donovan.  Beethovan.  Mozart.  Schubert.  Verde.   Classical music and opera of all kinds. Simon and Garfunkle.  Bob Dylan.  Joni Mitchell.  Carly Simon.  Neil Young.  James Taylor. Hank Williams.  Faron Young.  George Jones.  Eddie Arnold.  Tennesee Ernie Ford.  Hank Willims Jr.  The Dixie Chicks.  Little Jimmy Dickens.  Red Foley.  Roy Rogers.  Gene Autry. Pete Seeger.  Burl Ives.  Roy Orbison.  Roger Whittiker.  The Everly Brothers.  The Smothers Brothers.  Peter, Paul, and Mary.  The Kingston Trio.  The Brothers Four.   I love life; I love love; and I love loving.  So I love the songs "In My Life" sung by John   When it comes to music, I love all kinds and categories.  Being a poet at heart, I am especially enamoured of great lyrics.  

Favorite Books:

By Albert Camus: *Lyrical and Critical and Essays* .  *The Rebel*.  *The Myth of Sisyphus*.  *Resistance, Rebellion, and Death*.  *The Stranger*.  *The Plague*.  *The Misunderstanding*.  *Notebooks*.   *Caligula*.  *The First Man*.  Everything else he ever wrote or said.     

*Heart of Darkness* by Joseph Conrad.  *Dark Rivers of the Heart* by Dean Koontz.  *Reverance for Life* by Albert Schweitzer.  "Out of My Life and Thought* by Albert Einstein.  *The Autobiography of Bertrand Russel* by--guess who?

Poetry: The Complete Works of Shakespeare.  Robert Frost.  Emily Dickinson.  Andrew Marvell.  Shelley.  Keats.  Yeats.  Sappho.  Algernon Charles Swinburne.

Favorite science explicators: Isaac Asimov.  Carl Sagan.  Stephen J. Gould.  Robert Jastrow.  Favorite philosophy explicator: Walter S. Kaufmann. 

Etc., ad infinitum.  I feel the same way as Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed: "I cannot live without books." I have read hundreds of books and will keep reading--taking time out for many other activities of course! But books of all kinds are my greatest pleasure.