In the critic’s vocabulary, the word ‘precursor’ is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemic or rivalry. The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future. -Jorge Luis Borges, from “Kafka and His Precursors” Most recently, it was author Christopher Booker who espoused the … Read More Nothing New?
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone. If he does not love solitude he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is truly free. -Arthur Schopenhauer We are persistently inundated with external influences. If you live amongst others, it’s inescapable! We can’t avoid being affected by our family of origin, the … Read More Truly Free
If I only did what I could do I wouldn’t do anything. -Jacques Derrida Most of us are completely unaware of our potential. We limit ourselves in so many ways: by talking negatively to ourselves, by allowing others to criticize us, by comparing ourselves to others, and by setting unrealistic goals—thereby fulfilling our self-fulfilled prophecy that we can’t. But what if you … Read More I think I can, I think I can…
The purely righteous do not complain of the dark, but increase the light; they do not complain of evil, but increase justice; they do not complain of heresy, but increase faith; they do not complain of ignorance, but increase wisdom. -Rav Kook Sometimes the challenges in our country, community or family can feel overwhelming. And we wonder, what can I do?! I don’t think … Read More Light
If the self remains in its citadel, anxious to control and heavily defended, it declines in the sources of vitality. To lay the citadel open, however, is to court danger: a danger inseparable from the enhancement of life. -Roberto Mangabeira Unger, from “The Religion of the Future” I am visiting my university student daughter this week, and today had the opportunity to … Read More Dangerous Beauty
Nothing can ever happen twice. In consequence, the sorry fact is that we arrive here improvised and leave without the chance to practice… Why do we treat the fleeting day with so much needless fear and sorrow? It’s in its nature not to stay: today is always gone tomorrow. With smiles and kisses, we prefer to seek accord beneath our star, although we’re different … Read More Smiles and Kisses
Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong My love shall in my verse ever live young. -Shakespeare, from Sonnet XIX Continuing with last week’s theme of remembering, these final words from Shakespeare’s nineteenth sonnet evoke a sense of the eternal nature of memory. Memories are not relegated to dusty attics, or shoved back into the recesses of our mind; rather, as … Read More Ever Young
Last summer’s reeds are all engraved in ice as is your image in my eye; dry frost glazes the window of my hurt; what solace can be struck from rock to make heart’s waste grow green again? Who’d walk in this bleak place? -Sylvia Plath, from “Winter Landscape, with Rooks” Sometimes—usually in the winter—I feel drawn to Sylvia Plath, and to this poem … Read More Bleak Places
Thinking is only a small part of our consciousness. -Eckhart Tolle Most of us would agree with Descartes statement: I think therefore I am. The unconscious process goes something like this—when a thought arises, whether it is as simple as I really want another piece of cake or as reproachful as I’m a horrible friend, we usually accept it as truth. Then, when … Read More I think therefore I am?
He did not know that the new life would not be given him for nothing, that he would have to pay dearly for it, that it would cost him great striving, great suffering. But that is the beginning of a new story—the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, … Read More Your Story
I don’t know where prayers go, or what they do. Do cats pray, while they sleep half-asleep in the sun? Does the opossum pray as it crosses the street? The sunflowers? The old black oak growing older every year? I know I can walk through the world, along the shore or under the trees, with my mind filled with things of little importance, in full self-attendance. A condition I can’t really call being alive. Is a prayer … Read More While we are standing…
Everyone you see, you say to them, ‘Love me’. Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise Someone would call the cops. Still, though, think about this, the great pull To connect. Why not become the one who lives with a Full moon in each eye that is Always saying With that sweet moon language What every other eye In this world … Read More Seeing with new eyes
