This fierce disco number, written by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Cary Gilbert captured my imagination. I have listened to radio play of the song too many times to count. Thelma Houston’s opening voice run washed over me like the movement of a great tide. Is not our fundamental longing that of loving and…
Monday is gray outside with cloud cover. The light is muted, the leaves of Fall are almost all descended from branches. This is the week of Thanksgiving. Proclaimed as a national holiday by President Lincoln on October 3, 1863 in a context of the Civil War, the day was a bid for unity, and…
In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him. 2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of names, that he might be Lord of all the earth when it was suited to Man 3 And on the seven millionth day Man rested and did lean heavily on…
…one who takes his seat on the Tao and its Attributes, and there finds his ease and enjoyment, is not exposed to such a contingency. He is above the reach both of praise and of detraction; now he (mounts aloft) like a dragon, now he (keeps beneath) like a snake; he is transformed with…
The artisan Chui made things round (and square) more exactly than if he had used the circle and square. The operation of his fingers on (the forms of) things was like the transformations of them (in nature), and required no application of his mind; and so his Intelligence was entire and encountered no resistance….
The officer of Prayer in his dark and square-cut robes goes to the pig-pen, and thus counsels the pigs, ‘Why should you shrink from dying? I will for three months feed you on grain. Then for ten days I will fast, and keep vigil for three days, after which I will put down the…
‘Take the case of a drunken man falling from his carriage; – though he may suffer injury, he will not die. His bones and joints are the same as those of other men, but the injury which he receives is different: his spirit is entire. He knew nothing about his getting into the carriage,…
When Zhuangzi went to Ku, he saw an empty skull, bleached indeed, but still retaining its shape. Tapping it with his horse-switch, he asked it, saying, ‘Did you, Sir, in your greed of life, fail in the lessons of reason, and come to this? Or did you do so, in the service of a…
Master Zhuangzi and Master Hui were walking on the dam over the Hâo, when the former said, ‘These thryssas come out and play about at their ease; – that is the enjoyment of fishes.’ The other said, ‘You are not a fish; how do you know what constitutes the enjoyment of fishes?’ Master Zhuangzi…
The earl of the Ho said, ‘Very well. But what am I to do? and what am I not to do? How am I to be guided after all in regard to what I accept or reject, and what I pursue or put away from me?’ Zo of the Northern Sea replied, ‘From the…
