The Sun Interview

Vital Signs: Dr. Andrew Weil Diagnoses Western Medicine
“It’s easy to blame the drug companies, but they are just capitalizing on the mind-set that drugs are the only legitimate way of treating illness.”
By David Kupfer

Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

Going Under
An anesthesiologist examines his own fears
By Wolf Pascoe

What She Bought
A compulsive shopper’s quest for happiness
By Lois Judson

Everything’s Going To Be OK
A son’s lie to his aging mother
By Alan Craig

The Burden Of Bearing Fruit
Cutting down a beloved tree
By Brenda Miller

Fiction

Do You Know How Much I Love You?
“He started with me when I was twelve. And then, three years later, for no reason that I could tell, he stopped. Whatever, I said to myself. I wasn’t one to dwell.”
By Annie Weatherwax

Poetry

His Name Is John
By Ed Meek

Readers Write

Medicine
In the emergency room, beside a mother’s deathbed, at a Buddhist monastery
Personal stories by our readers

Departments

Sy Safransky’s Notebook
“Maybe it’s the Prozac. Maybe it’s the rain. Maybe it’s because I’m too damn vain. Can’t I put down simple words and send them out the door? Does it matter how they’re dressed? Does it matter if they’re poor?”

Sunbeams
“I had never gone to a doctor in my adult life, feeling instinctively that doctors meant either cutting or, just as bad, diet.”

“I think we trade off our life for pretty shallow experiences of thought, and our feeling is blocked, and we show no mercy. We live our life in the mind, which is a place of separation, instead of the heart, the place of unity and communion. When we walk in the woods do we see a flower, or do we think of ourselves as somebody walking in the woods and looking at a flower?”

More

Sun Editorial Associate Luc Saunders writes: “Stephen Levine is best known for his pioneering work with the dying and grieving, and he covers these topics here, but what I like most about this interview is how it fans out to include discussion of healing, meditation, and the experience of our deepest nature. After reading it, I can’t help but feel uplifted and challenged.”

The December interview, “Written on the Bones: Kim Rosen on Reclaiming the Ancient Power of Poetry,” by Alison Luterman, helps a woman in northern California recognize the power of poetry in her life. Rosen’s description of poetry as “sacred” leads a blogger to ponder her identity as a Quaker poet. A ravenous reader in Michigan continues the discussion about poetry’s place in American culture.

A photographer in Washington, D.C., finds useful advice for young photographers in the December Dog-Eared Page, from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters To A Young Poet.

A Denver teacher reads several back issues of The Sun while visiting a friend who's a subscriber.

1. Written On The Bones: Kim Rosen On Reclaiming The Ancient Power Of Poetry
   Interview by Alison Luterman
   (December 2010)
2. The Office
   Personal stories by our readers
   (December 2010)
3. What Do You Need?
   Fiction by Jane Ratcliffe
   (December 2010)
4. Finding A Good Man
   Essay by Jasmine Skye
   (January 2000)
5. Brewing Up Trouble: Chip Berlet On The Tea Party And The Rise Of Right-Wing Populism
   By David Barsamian
   (November 2010)

Join Sun authors, readers, and staff, including editor and publisher Sy Safransky, for one of our lively weekends of conversation, reflection, and inspiration. The Sun will host three gatherings in 2011:

• April 8–10 at the Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland, North Carolina
• June 3–5 at the Rowe Conference Center in Rowe, Massachusetts
• October 21–23 at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California

Please save the dates in your calendar. Details will be available on our website in mid-January.

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