The love of humanity is not a self sufficient force or one that has a direct efficacy. …as every teacher knows you cannot prevail over egoism by recommending “altruism.” — excerpt The Two Sources of Morality and Religion By Henri Bergson p. 36
Truly great artists—- the ones that shape the zeitgeist— have the bravery to take themselves seriously. Never irony —- honesty is the coin of their realm. The willingness to look a fool. The audacity to be earnest. The confidence to be vulnerable. Cynicism comes cheap in the postmodern era, but you get what you…
Another thought provoking discussion. This one considered the work of Martin Heidegger and William Faulkner. Both men, one a metaphysician, and the other a writer of fiction offered a lifetime’s worth of caution, of alarm about what we are doing to Nature. Faulker writes of the last of the large game, an old bear…
Yesterday was my son’s 42nd birthday. The family gathered at the house for a celebration. Another year together is a cause for celebration. There was a fine meal with some of my son’s favorite foods, and of course an ice-cream birthday cake. As aspect of the afternoon was a frog hunting expedition along the…
First some good news! I indicated in yesterday’s post that the young rabbit that is living in our backyard may have joined the circle of life. By that I mean the predator-prey relationship. The vegetarian rabbit is prey for larger carnivores. The rabbit that I have named Percival is still around! One day at…
Original Poem (Dowson, 1890) They are not long, the weeping and the laughter, Love and desire and hate; I think they have no portion in us after We pass the gate. They are not long, the days of wine and roses, Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes…
I am certain that, of speaking and of listening, — to listen well is the more difficult skill. I was reminded of this yesterday when I heard the old Marvin Gaye song, What’s Going On. The tune is an appeal for careful, generous listening so that we can see “What’s going on.” Marvin’s appeal…
Virulent, half true, untrue rhetoric is a step towards war, real war, not war as a metaphor. A thing begins by the language that we absorb and begin to speak. By our manner of speaking one “chooses a lane,” aligns him or herself with a side and thereby voluntarily ceases to think. Consequently one…
Yesterday a friend and I had a troubling email exchange. At least the words were troubling to me. The friend insisted that I “choose a lane.” What was meant was that I ought to definitively side with the conservative/near fascist collective, of which the President is the figure-head or side with the liberal/socialist minded…
Ray Bradbury, the acclaimed author from Waukegan, Illinois said that the secret to life was knowing how to fall in love and stay in love. (I’ve not read Fahrenheit 451, but plan to do so.) My instincts tell me that Bradbury hit the bullseye with his sage comment. Nevertheless knowing and doing cannot be…
