Smell is something most of us can perceive, however, most of us have a difficult time putting a name to a particular scent. We can all describe, with great detail and accuracy (at least, we feel that we are being accurate), what a scent reminds us of, or what it's like, but finding one definitive label is difficult for us. Diane Ackerman in A Natural History of The Senses observes that the easiest way for us to most accurately describe smell is by relating it to memory. Smells can trigger some of the most visceral feelings and memories we have. And furthermore, those feelings and memories are a crucial part of understanding ourselves within the greater context of reality. Imagine you're walking down a random street in your childhood hometown, you don't go by there often, but today you chose to take the long route to work which passes through the neighborhood. You pass by a bakery, but immediately, not upon sight, but upon smell, you know it is not just any bakery. It...
Ariella's latest and very timely post get read it to start thinking about our banquet - reminded me of this piece that just appeared in last Sunday's NY times. Planning the kind of things others - parents, grandparents, "grown-ups" have done for us in the past is itself a kind of right of passage into adulthood.
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