journal features

a friend turns fifty

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2018.12.19

I had a rare get-together with a friend tonight, a few days before his fiftieth birthday. It's one of the signs of middle age that a) you rarely see your friends and b) even a milestone birthday is met with, "say, don't you have a birthday around now?"

Sadly, another friend "took" a heart attack this month, quite out of the blue after a lifetime of staying fit, avoiding the cancer sticks and even drinking in moderation. He's doing well, but: dang.

rand()m quote

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov