There’s a deeply moving, brief essay by Tony Judt in the New York Review of Books. Judt is a historian whose work I respect immensely. I began reading him during 1989 when the Iron Curtain was coming down and Corrie and I were making plans to live in Germany. I have followed his work ever since. He is an astute and perceptive commentator on current events, especially in Europe. His deep knowledge of European history allows him to see things that go unnoticed by others.

He was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gherig’s disease) in 2008 and is now paralyzed from the neck down. This meditation focuses on his experiences during the night. It’s available here: Night – The New York Review of Books.

He describes an existence that most of us find unfathomable–an active mind trapped in body that can’t move, but through which he continues to have feeling. He will continue to write these brief essays for the NYRB and they promise to give insight into this disease but I feel somewhat voyeuristic as I read.

His essay does raise questions about the relationship of body and mind that have long intrigued me and about which I may write more substantively some day.