Is all hope groundless hope?
Live without hope. Think without hope. It makes suffering worse. That is the moral of a recent piece on The New York Times’ The Stone blog named, fittingly, Abandon (Nearly) […]
Author Archives: René Breuel
The School of Greatness
One of my favorite stories of all time is that of a young man who dreams big. And his dreams come true. But about 13 years of suffering and humiliation […]
A Breath of Beauty
An iconic movement blossomed in Parisian circles in the late 1860s. Artists like Claude Monet, Jean-Pierre Renoir and Edward Degas started to forge a new way of painting, opening a […]
To make a difference
Nothing inspires me most than seeing a good person die. I mean not that they die, of course. I wish they would live longer; I wish they’d never die. But […]
Durable Legacy
One afternoon in 1912, Sigmund Freud was enthralled by a statue. It captured his imagination for hours, and returning home from his trip to Rome, he poured himself over pictures […]
Hell and God’s Goodness
A horrific crime took place this past weekend: reportedly 33 men doped and raped a sixteen-years old girl in Brazil. It’s hard to imagine something more cruel and disgusting than […]
Mr. Incredible is just like … me!
Some years ago I had the delightful experience of watching The Incredibles. I wasn’t a child anymore (was I maybe 18?) and for some reason (was it a rainy holiday?) […]
Infectious Motivation
Around 362 A.D., at some fancy palace dressed in marble, Emperor Julian was fuming. Julian was the last of Rome’s pagan emperors, who led one last effort to revive pagan […]
View from a Room
A young man opened the window of his room one autumn evening to wonder about life. After a tumultuous year, he painted his view over Saint-Rémy, depicting a picturesque village lit by […]
Tough Friendship
No one told me about it. I used to have a nice pair of black shoes, my favorite, the first gift Sarah ever gave me, but which acquired a doubtful […]
Wondering Fair 