The South, too, was an earthly paradise. Not of course at all times, for all its inhabitants. There were the slaves. Yet the South, before the War between the States, had this of paradise left to it: it had the wholeness that embraced white and black in an apparent unity, even though the relationship…
When a myth becomes a daydream it is judged, found wanting, and must be discarded. To cling to it when it has lost its creative function is to condemn oneself to mental illness. I do not say we must learn to live without myths (such an idea is dangerous self-deception: it is itself a…
But this memory is the glue that keeps the universe as one: although immaterial it makes being possible, it is being. If an idea did not remember to think it wouldn’t be. If a chair wasn’t there, it wouldn’t be tomorrow. If I didn’t remember that I am, I won’t be. We can also…
Where many machines are used in monastic work (and it is right that they should be used), there can be a deadening of the spirit and of sensibility, a blunting of perception, a loss of awareness, a lowering of tone, a general fatigue and lassitude, a proneness to unrest and guilt which we might…
The Ohio River is big. From the deck of a boat, one can appreciate the scale of the bridges required to convey vehicles from Kentucky to Indiana, across the Ohio river. It is not hard to imagine the immense challenge of constructing the first bridge across this muscular flowing expanse of water. Then came…
I can’t prove this. And I have no idea how data could be collected and interpreted. I think that we are a composite of our ancestors, parents, grandparents, extending backward….. the times in which they lived, their failures, successes, triumphs, and defeats –all add up to form the backdrop, the emotional ground tone of…
A coffee shop can be a “home” away from home. For the price of a cup of coffee one can just be, hangout, find solitude with others, for reading, for ones thoughts, or for observing human nature expressed in behavior and the dress of patrons. Coffee Shops are essential public spaces. My customary spot…
It was dark when I walked in the door here at Safai Coffee shop on Bardstown Road in Louisville. At 7AM just myself and two baristas compose the crowd. There is comfort to darkness. The relative quiet of morning with slight traffic noise leaves the mind undisturbed. We need darkness. Darkness is context for…
It’s Sunday morning in Louisville Ky. A short walk from the BNB I found Safai Coffee open at 7AM. Southern towns are sleepy on Sunday morning and Louisville is no exception, though Louisville qualifies as a small city. In the South on a Sunday morning, I feel that I ought to be in church. …
“Who dares despise the day of small things,……” –Zechariah 4:10 niv I cannot recall beginning a post with a quotation from the prophets of the Old Testament. These words strike me as fitting. Today I responded to a request from a long term customer. While working on site in a remodeled space that will…
