Saturday Memory

November 22, 2025

No recall of a specific memory, but as I was trying to recall, I fell into

a deep reverie on the number 87. I will be 87 on Thanksgiving. It will

be the last year of my third Saturn return, so a critical point

in time. I thought of “Four score and seven.” I thought of songs I

remember, e.g., David Bowie’s “87 and Cry.”  87 is the sum of the

squares of the first four prime numbers. Lots of miscellaneous

memories.  What struck me the most was the feeling of completing

a cycle. I couldn’t help but connect this with Origine, the “mentor

of my completeness.” I find myself joking about 87 candles on the

turkey or the cake.

Thought for the Day
Wednesday, November 19, 2025

The big headline today is “Leonard Lauder’s Klimt fetches $236.4 million at Sotheby’s.” Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Elizabeth Lauder (1912-1914) is the most ever paid for modern art at auction. This headline continues a trend that makes the most important thing about art the price it sells for. This monetization of art eclipses the meaning of art or other values of art and reflects how money has become the primary value in almost all areas of culture. There is no escaping it.

I woke up with a line from a poem: “Old age is center stage.” In a few days, I’ll be 87 years old, so this line was hardly “news.” As much as I am aware of old age and deal with it in various ways daily, nay, hourly, is more accurate, what is it I need reminding of by this line from sleep? My first thought was that this was a poem, but my memory only has a single line. So, I will work on a poem. The second thing that occurred to me was the memory of a foreword I wrote for a book on aging. For now, I’ll include that here, for it says many things that are coming to mind under the weight of this line from sleep. I’ll post it here as a Saturday Memory.

Old age is an opportunity to experience our own deepest mystery. Life’s distractions preclude tending to this mystery before the prospect of death begins to close all the curtains to the outside world. Mystery literally means “seeing with the eyes closed.” We do this when we sleep, and then we see dreams. Dreams, like our DNA, are unique to us. Truth be known, our dreams are an invitation to explore our uniqueness and become an extraordinary resource for us as we confront the reality and inevitability of death. We do know that every dream is a story—a mystery—but most people have little or no connection to this reality. This is why it is important for something or someone to point us in the direction of our own unique path—a direction that becomes crucial as death approaches. We don’t need instruction. We don’t need lectures. We don’t need admonitions or dogma. What we need are stories that strike us to the core, stories that can open us up to the most important pathway we will ever experience. What can help is to hear stories of someone who has struggled with the same things we struggle with in old age and as death begins to call our name. An exquisite example is Lilly Iona MacKensie’s book, Dreaming Myself into Old Age: One Woman’s Search for Meaning. What I find most compelling about this work is she speaks not with an impersonal, distant voice, but with full-throated revelations of her personal struggles, an inside view that invites connection, that opens one up to her stories, her dreams, and her art in such a way that it becomes a genuine companion to one’s own struggles with old age, dying, and death. Read this book now. You will be glad you did.

Russell A. Lockhart, Ph.D.

Author of The Final Interlude: Advancing Age and Life’s End, Psyche Speaks, Words As Eggs

Thought for the Day
Wednesday, November 12, 2025

The word “enantiodromia” means a turn into the opposite. Heraclitus first articulated it in about 500 BCE. He wrote, “Cold things warm, warm things cool, wet things dry, parched things get wet.” He developed this as the idea of tension reaching an extreme before triggering the run into its opposite state. Jung took this idea and made it a centerpiece of his psychology. It applies to individuals, groups, societies, and cultures. Given the extremity that Trumpism has brought about, what will be the likely trigger to reverse this horrific development? Any suggestions appreciated. I will work on my own reply as well.

Russ

Saturday Memory
November 8, 2025

I woke up thinking about a song. It was not a dream but an intense recall. The song was “Harper Valley PTA.” I remembered that Jeannie Riley sang it and that she was the first woman to top the pop and country charts with the same song. I also recalled that it had become something of a feminist anthem and was written by one of my favorite songwriters, Tom T. Hall. I first heard the song 57 years ago, but I have not heard it for several decades. I was 30 when I heard it and was about to begin training as a Jungian analyst. The theme of the song is a strong single woman standing up to a small town’s patriarchal hypocrisy. But why am I being reminded of this now as I near my 87th birthday? Sometimes, listening to a song that comes strongly out of the blue like this brings up a new feeling or a realization of some kind that applies to the “now.” When I listened to Jeannie sing “Harper Valley PTA,” I felt a strong urge to turn my poems into songs. How can I do this now becomes a task. I’ll post again when something comes of this. Take a listen:

(24) Jeannie C. Riley – Harper Valley P.T.A. with Lyrics – YouTube

Russ

Thought for the Day
Wednesday, November 5, 2025

The idea that dreams are a natural resource that cannot be plundered by money, power, corporatocracy, government or any other factor, means that dreams can be a source for something genuinely new and different. But this source is almost totally ignored by the vast majority of people. The loss that this represents is monumental and disheartening. What can be done to change this?

Russ

Saturday Memory
November 1, 2025

I learned to play poker from the police. The police were guarding our family. In addition to his job as foreman at Arden Milk Company, my dad was a bookie. Quite a few of his clients were police. Mickey Cohen wanted to organize all the bookies in LA under his command. He was Bugsy Siegel’s right-hand man. My dad refused. Cohen threatened to kill him and the family; hence, the police guard. Mickey was finally arrested, and the threat subsided. Mickey was a glamorous villain as he mingled with Hollywood celebrities and others (e.g., Frank Sinatra). I never felt scared. But I reveled in being with the police and the detectives, and poker served me well.

Thought for the Day
Wednesday, October 29, 2025

Catastrophic Changes in Global Environments. “Present bias” is thought to be “hard wired” in the human brain. This was largely developed as an evolutionary necessity. It takes both cognitive and emotional forms. The “future” plays little role in present bias. Thus, present profit outweighs consideration of what longer term harm may ensue from activities that produce present profit. Present political necessity far outweighs any consideration of the future. “Personal bias” likewise over weights personal gain in relation to gain for the many. The contemporary world has seen these processes escalate to degrees never before witnessed and unless changed, will continue to amass fortune and power only for a very few at the expense of the many. This is the natural outcome of what Bernays understood and projected. The major problem is that little if any of the immense global wealth and political power is being directed toward the catastrophic changes in global environments. Present bias keeps almost everyone focused on the here and now, the seeming crucial news of the day, current elections, entertainments, and new gadgets. It is hard to look square into the face of what we have done to ourselves and to other life forms. Not only is denial a problem, but it is also not clear whether, in fact, anything can be done to change what is now in progress.  Again, only an enantiodromia of major degree will change the course of how we relate to this process.

Russ

Saturday Memory
October 25, 2025

I woke up this morning remembering my favorite movie. It was accompanied by a feeling of needing to watch it again (I watch it most every year) and say something about this film and why it is a necessary film to see in our contemporary period of arrogant authoritarianism. This film is about the stupidity of the political need to block the message of the other. The central figure of the film is Klaatu. Michael Rennie plays him. He is an alien other who arrives not as a threat but as a messenger. But human blindness sees the other only as a threat, only as a menace, only as evil. Human shortsightedness keeps the message unheard, even in the face of the overwhelming power Klaatu can bring to bear. Klaatu sees the futility of appealing to politicians. He conveys knowledge to a scientist who recognizes its value. Klaatu appeals to the scientists to bring humanity to its senses before it is too late. The film ends in a limbo of uncertainty about the future of humanity. The film first appeared in 1951, 74 years ago. I saw it as a teenager just after my 13th birthday. It impacted me in powerful ways and shaped how I see things, even today. Collectively, we have not learned the lesson but have fallen deeper into the abyss. The film is The Day the Earth Stood Still. Here is the link on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh8P4MIaZBA

Watch it.

Russ

Thought for the Day
Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Disembodiment is one consequence of the ubiquity of most everything flailing under the sway of virtual reality. Disembodiment exposes the body and psyche to various infections, both organic and psychological. Disembodiment allows collective pressures to assume more control over the individual, control that is impervious to change. This is a great danger to the collective as well as the individual. Disembodiment happens in stages: breakdown of values, breakdown of truth, breakdown of all things that have the capacity to hold and nurture. As life itself begins to lose value, the floodgates open and collapse of most everything accelerates in exponential fashion. It is a picture of cultural suicide.

Russ