A good book has no ending. (by rennes.i)
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Search for Truth
Search for nothing any more, nothing
except truth.
Be very still, and try to get at the truth.
And the first question to ask yourself is:
How great a liar am I?
–D.H. Lawrence
Poetry relies on the conviction there are
trapdoors in words where great changes can enter,
the words themselves turn to windows or doors big enough
for revolution, revelation, kisses or friends.The poet says she knows there is no afterlife
and then kisses life so thoroughly from top to bottom
there isn’t any room for
after.
life.
Barbara Lamorticella, from After. Life (via violentwavesofemotion)
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
I read poems. I write. That is my destiny. Standing on the edge of the cliff about to fall into the abyss, I remember who I am. I am a young poet, a writer. I am here to make words. I have the power to pull myself back from death—to keep myself alive.
—bell hooks, Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood
Thursday, June 20, 2013
I see it all perfectly. There are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.
Søren Kierkegaard who is hailed as the father of existentialism recently turned two hundred. (via mndrngs)
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
We live in a world made up more of story than stuff. We are creatures of memory more than reminders, of love more than likes. Being attentive to the needs of others might not be the point of life, but it is the work of life. It can be messy, and painful, and almost impossibly difficult. But it is not something we give. It is what we get in exchange for having to die.
Jonathan Safran Foer (via mndrngs)
Sunday, June 16, 2013
….for the night
Hath been to me a more familiar face
Than that of man; and in her starry shade
Of dim and solitary loveliness,
I learn’d the language of another world.
Lord Byron, from “Manfred” (via litverve)
Saturday, June 15, 2013
kateoplis: “Locate her biggest flaw: her eyes look squished on her forehead. She...
“Locate her biggest flaw: her eyes look squished on her forehead. She doesn’t eat meat. Her favorite author is Thoreau. Recognize that this, crazy, little thing is what makes her character pop. Understand it, process it, and then tell her that it’s okay. Don’t try to change her, ever. Remind her…
kateoplis: “Locate her biggest flaw: her eyes look squished on her forehead. She...
Friday, June 14, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
A (Third) Open Letter to My Daughter
Hi, Peanut. This is becoming a regular thing, isn’t it? By the end, I should have quite a collection of rambling wisdom for you to ignore.
A few things have been on my mind. First, though, I must say how much your existence has benefited me, or, more specifically, how it has benefited my thinking. It’s been said that small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, and great minds discuss ideas. I’m a firm believer in this, but I believe an asterisk has to be added. Small minds can become average minds, and average minds can become great minds; or, rather, can become like great minds.
It is often said, too, that, in order to become a better person, you must surround yourself with people who are better than you. The same can be said of media, though: you are what you consume. If small minds begin to discuss events, then they become better. If average minds discuss ideas, they become better.
Since I became your father, it’s become second nature to think about and discuss ideas. Perhaps there was a predisposition towards this, but you’ve underscored it. When I think of the world, I think of it in terms of how it will affect you; ideas, then, are the only thing worthy of discussion, because they are the only way to improve the world you will live in. Ideas are only the springboard, of course; execution must follow, but execution is merely the food we swallow; ideas ensure we have the stomach for it.
All that is to say: thank you. You’ve made me a better person, merely by being.
Now, then, onto the imparting of wisdom (or, perhaps, the illusion of it).
I’ve become fascinated recently with an idea conceived by a German philosopher named Hegel. It’s the triad of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. A thesis is a proposition, usually an intellectual one, but any will do. The antithesis is the reaction to the thesis, usually a negation of it.
So, here you have the two extremes: thesis and antithesis. What arises from the clashing of those two concepts is the synthesis. The synthesis finds the truths that the thesis and antithesis have in common, reconciles them, and puts forth a new thesis, beginning the process anew. Essentially, it’s the evolution of thought.
The concept has made me feel a bit better about the world in which we now live. I think about the Civil Rights movement: a proposition was brought to the table (equality), opposition rose up (violently), and the (relatively) peaceful world we now live in is the synthesis of those two ideas. The same thing is happening with the gay community now. By the time you read this, I suspect that it will be considered as ridiculous to persecute the LGBT community as it now is to be racist. I see this process unfolding with religion and politics at the moment. A secular movement is underway, and the opposition is substantial, loud, and ludicrous. I hope to see the synthesis arise.
That’s the process as macrocosm, but I think it can be turned inward. We often take things to extremes as kids (I see you do this all the time- makeup obsession, anyone?). I did it, too; I was into gangster rap, for cryin’ out loud. There comes a point, though, when you realize how ridiculous you’re being, and the reaction is usually to distance yourself from that type of behavior, so you go the opposite direction. Eventually, you find that ridiculous, too, and slide somewhere towards the middle.
It’s that sliding towards the middle that is at the heart of growing up.
The middle, for our purposes, is just another way of saying “balance” or “moderation.” It’s that balance that’s been on my mind for some time, because it seems to me that moderation is the key to everything.
You hear that word being tossed around all the time, but I don’t think most realize the implications of it. To quote the great Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
It’s often used to talk about drinking, or TV, or anything that can be taken to excess. Again, we tend to project these things externally, but turning them inward has a much more profound effect.
We are animals. Civilization (let’s call it) has decided that its own job is to propel us as far away from our animal nature as possible. I don’t think that’s 1) healthy, and 2) living up to our potential. To say that we are animals is not a condemnation; it is only to explain the way things are. We eat, we have sex, we exert ourselves for fun. These are very fundamental truths; they are the building blocks of our being. Everything else arises from that. So when we deny those aspects of ourselves, we pull away from who we are, until we’re barely able to recognize ourselves.
Catholic priests are a good, if extreme, example. Anorexic models are another. Workaholics are busying themselves into that category.
Deny yourself your basest sexual instincts, and they will conquer you. Deny yourself food, and it will conquer you. Deny yourself leisure, and work will conquer you. Of course, taking things to the other extreme is no less harmful (look up Caligula on Wikipedia).
These are all obvious examples, but if you look closely, other, subtler variations on this theme exist. Jealousy, for example, is a natural human tendency. At first glance, the emotion seems to have no redeeming qualities. It seems utterly useless, in fact.
But it can be harnessed. Jealousy (and envy, if I may lump them together) is simply your desire to have what someone else has. That may be a person, or it may be a quality. If it is a person, it’s helpful to reflect on precisely why you want what you want. Maybe you’ll find that a current friendship feels lackluster, and what you really want is a true connection with another person. If that’s the case, you now know what you want, and can go about getting it.
If you’re envious of another’s position or success, you can study them- find what quality they possess that helped them attain what you desire. Cultivate that quality in yourself.
It must be said that all this cannot be undertaken without a sort of apprenticeship to life. It takes an extraordinary amount of self-awareness to apply what we’ll call the Moderation Principle with any sort of efficacy. Most people, I’m sorry to say, lack this self-awareness to an alarming degree.
Consider that your job, then. The unexamined life is not worth living, true, but to examine life is to examine yourself. Think of yourself, of the stuff inside that makes you you, as a clock. When we’re born, that clock keeps perfect time with the rhythm of the world. As time passes, though, our clocks become less and less accurate. That feeling of being out of sync with the world is just that: your clock and the world are keeping different time, different rhythm. You’re ticking when the world is tocking. So what are we to do? You must fix the clock.
But it is a delicate process. Not just anyone can fix a clock; it takes years of practice, of dedication to the craft. Like the clockmaker studies his craft, you must study yourself. Then, with a steady hand and the appropriate knowledge, you can set about the task of fixing the clock- and it’s a glorious thing to do so, and realize that, once again, you and your world are keeping perfect time.
PS- The only exception to the Moderation Principle is love. When you love, love with everything you have, even if - especially if - it comes at the cost of your broken heart.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Saturday, June 8, 2013
The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age; since it presents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information by throwing in the reader’s way piles of lumber in which he must painfully grope for the scraps of useful lumber.
Edgar Allen Poe (via rianvdm)
Silence is no weakness of language.
It is, on the contrary, its strength.
It is the weakness of words not to know this.
Edmond Jabès, from “Source Language Target Language” in The Book of Shares, trans. Rosmarie Waldrop (via litverve)
Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.—Wendell Berry, from “How To Be a Poet”
Friday, June 7, 2013
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