A Momentary Taste of Being

Reading through "Agamemnon," which I'm certain I read in college and I'm a little surprised by my reaction. I have a lasting impression of Clytemnestra as the villain of the piece along with her lover Aegisthus. This reading I understand much more clearly Clytemnestra and can even summon up a little bit of sympathy for Aegisthus--at least so far as their crime against Agamemnon. The sacrifice of Iphigenia tore out a mother's heart--destroyed her completely. And what happened to Thyestes (Aegisthus father)--being fed his own children by Atreus (Agamemnon's father), certainly explains some things, even if I am not into the generational vengeance thing.  I used to think them the villains of the piece but this speech by Clytemnestra pretty much sums it up: So now you sentence me to banishment, allot me hatred, rumbling civic curses. Back then you offered him no opposition when he, as casual as at one death among the crowding and luxuriant flocks, sacrificed...

You treat love like a rare earth element infinitely precious, Incredibly valuable, in so many ways powerful, and rare, to be dolloped out in micro- and nanograms, to be used only here and there to coordinate functions and link however temporarily things that are apart. What will it take to convince you that love is like the atmosphere– infinitely precious and in the universe–rare enough. But oh my it’s everywhere–in and on and around all living things It is our home and our life and without it–a barren rock is all there’d be. Just try to hoard the atmosphere, stuff it in a bag, dollop it out in nanograms it goes where it goes and it stays there despite all you can do to drive it out.

If your house is on fire, the most urgent thing to do is to go back and try to put out the fire, not to run after the person you believe to be the arsonist. If you run after the person you suspect has burned your house, your house will burn down while you are chasing him or her. That is not wise. You must go back and put out the fire. So when you are angry, if you continue to interact with or argue with the other person, if you try to punish her, you are acting exactly like someone who runs after the arsonist while everything goes up in flames. Anger Thich Nhat Hanh

" They mounted and set off for the house. Ordering the servant to ride on before with the lantern, Leila brought her horse close in so that they might ride knee-to-knee, solaced by the touch of each other’s bodies. They had not been lovers for very long —barely ten days —though to the youthful Mountolive it seemed a century, an eternity of despair and delight. He had been formally educated in England, educated not to wish to feel. All the other valuable lessons he had already mastered, despite his youth —to confront the problems of the drawing-room and the street with sang-froid; but towards personal emotions he could only oppose the nervous silence of a national sensibility almost anaesthetized into clumsy taciturnity: an education in selected reticences and shames." In Mountolive  by Lawrence Durrell, and describing him (Mountolive)

Suffering is contagious in a way that joy is not--we are ENGULFED by the passion but the transfiguration trundles by ignored.

Jammin' with Basquiat Art decore888888888 sp A C E and Muse-sich decar8888888888 t-I me but po et tree descar888888888 theme eind.

For all the problems I see around me, I prefer no time to my time(really, they were all the same but now you can see both light and dark. No longer do we sit in complete ignorance while others tell us how great we are); no age to my present age(though sometimes in the aches and pains, it sounds nice to be a younger self--the pain of the fire that burns too intensely and forgets more frequently that life is the only real gift far outweighs these signs that I've come far enough to delight in what the world offers);  no place but my place(the spirit of wandering sings loud and the lure of having ever more and more persuades, until I think of the hours and days and weeks and years expended in keeping all fine and catch a glimpse of me as servant to all that owns me, and know that however far I go, I long still for a place of retreat). In short, I can be content if I settle down to be.

I'd like for my biggest problem to be "What shade of blue do I wear today."

Seeing It was like He said Let's put a black box around your head and cut a small ragged circular hole in it right in the center just above the bridge of your nose and cover the hole with a million year old, scratched up gray filter. Then let's light the room with dim red bulbs accented with a silver bright flashing strobe light. And let's fill the room with fog like sublimating dry ice and then send you in to pick up a thousand black pins from the deep pile dark green carpet. If it doesn't seem right just keep at it until it does. And not knowing any better you do. poetry   Drafts   My writing

This evening saw Collateral Beauty with my son. We both liked it, but critics, predictably hated it--a lot.  They found it predictable and manipulative and cynical.  Probably all true--but it is of a type that is designed for all of that--a tearjerker.  As such, it has a formula--and the execution of this formula was remarkably well done.  Except for one bit of overexplaining toward the end, it was a predictably simple story with an interesting twist which I did not see coming. In case you're wondering this is all about making sure that I've posted something today, to try to get back into the regular rhythm of it.

And retreating here to set up a sort of accountability for my writing.  I hope to take back up with the same mix of the literary and spirituality, with perhaps the latter in greater abundance than hitherto.

In his third book length publication Jonah Lehrer takes on the world of creativity, innovation, and to some extent imagination--though that is hardly touched upon at all.  Leaving the secure ground of neuroscience (particularly in the second half og the book) Lehrer strays into the fields of social psychology and sociology with somewhat mixed results. Perhaps that is only for me.  I tend to become quite skeptical when research involves more than empirically verifiable fact and strays off into the territory of group interaction.  You can say that something worked, but it seems difficult to pinpoint why that something worked in the particular instance.  Taking the well-known example of Pixar, Lehrer  (summarizing the work of others, implies that success was largely the result of architecture forcing hallway meetings and interchange.  This, in turn, blossomed into some of the wonderful films we see from the studio.  If such chance meetings and random co...

I'm not certain that enough good can be said of Kate Grenville.  In this second book of a trilogy devoted to the early history of Australia, she gives us the story of  Daniel Rooke--fashioned loosely after the real-life character of William Dawes.  William Dawes was an early student of the Aboriginal peoples and their language as well as an astronomer and all round polymath.  He was expelled from Australia and went on to join forces with William Wilberforce and, eventually, to open a school for freed-slaves in Antigua. What Ms. Grenville gives us here is a remarkable story of first contact--of trying to forge the bonds of understanding that would bridge a vast gulf between the experiences of two different cultures.  She performs a remarkable feat in being able to show us the darkness of "civilization" as viewed by the aboriginal people.  She also speaks of the tenderness of heart and kindness that can bridge any gap.  She does all of this in language...

One Saturday I happened into the library and stumbled upon a relatively new book by Kate Grenville with the title of Sarah Thornhill. I might not have given it a second glance--but truth is, I did, and doing so discovered that it was the prize-winning third volume of a trilogy.  Never one to start at the end I went looking for the other two volumes and stumbled upon The Secret River. As is the way with a great many things from the library, it took me a while to get around to it, and then some time to get into it.  And once again, I'm very glad I did. The Secret River  tells the story of William and Sarah Thornhill from the time that William was born to an impoverished family in the London Slums through the time of his transportation to Australia and on to his eventual success there.  In the course of the story, he marries Sarah who goes with him to Australia and in the strange way that things transpired in that early colony becomes his overseer and master.  T...

Anyone interested in taking a look at my new novel, Beyond the Rim of Space ?  Right now we have the e-file available and if  you're willing to tackle an e-book, I'd be happy to send it to you--just ask that you post a review on Lulu and/or Amazon (when it eventually trickles its way through the Amazon bureaucracy to emerge as a Kindle book. Oh, and for those kind enough to take a look at this blog from time to time, the alternative cover:  We had several while in the works, and the one above is the one--for a variety of reasons, that we settled on--but each had its merits.  Enjoy!

It occurred to me the other day, while reading a remarkable study of the figurehead and inspiration behind our latest round of privateering, that we've really missed the mark.  It really occurred after I attempted to watch Atlas Shrugged in its most recent film incarnation, not wishing to subject myself to the turgid prose and rancid philosophizing of the one person most responsible for the progressive decline of anything good to say about the libertarian ideal.  If   The Book of Mormon could spawn a highly successful Broadway appearance, why not Atlas Shrugged: The Musical ,  or better yet, Who is John Galt?: The Musical. It could be paired with a revival of Springtime for Hitler  or Hitler on Ice: The Ice Capades Spectacular (as featured at the end of History of the World: part I). Think of the possible profits--the ability to exploit the poor and downtrodden--the possibility of proselytization. On a more serious note--a more sobering and bracing stud...

from The Amish Way Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, David L. Weaver-Zecher David Kline was green long before it became trendy. He summarizes his theology for eco-friendly living in these words: "If one's livelihood comes from the earth--from the land, from creation on a sensible scale, where humans are a part of the unfolding of the seasons, experience the blessing of drought-ending rains, and seek God's spirit in all creation--a theology for living should be as natural as the rainbow following a summer storm. And then we can pray, 'Help us to walk gently on the earth and to love and nurture your creation and handiwork.'"

From my Amish reading--a reflection on the proper use of Bible reading. from The Amish Wa y   Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, David L. Weaver-Zercher   One minister, however, cautions that "Bible reading and study is not good when you do it to find fault and criticize churches and people around you. There is a big difference between reading for your daily bread and inspiration, and studying the Bible just to be critical of others or to justify your own contentious and rebellious thoughts." It is very important to remember that any interpretation of Scripture that is used to harm others or to coerce others very likely lacks authenticity.  If we fail in love, we fail.

I will readily confess a deep interest in the Amish way.  Not the romanticized Witness and television drama version of Amish living, but in the witness the Amish offer of the possibility of another way of life--of being separate, apart, and yet whole. Reading this wonderful book offers insights that go beyond what one might encounter in many books about the Amish.  It does not offer the usual proverbs, sayings, and superficial picture of buggies, bonnets, and barns.  Instead, we are offered a glimpse of Amish worship and how the Amish make meaning. What is fascinating to me about all major faiths is the way that the emphasize a particular truth of the Gospel (often, I must say, at the expense of representing the fullness of the gospel).  What the Amish show, and represent powerfully is the notion of salvation within community--certainly a theme of Jewish Spirituality--but the main theme of the Amish way.  Everything is about keeping the community as Chu...

As anyone who may look into this blog from time to time undoubtedly knows, Virginia Woolf wrote a number of modernist masterpieces.  It's hard for me to choose from among her novels, to name the very finest, because each has its own merits, its own unique contributions to the literary world.  But surely it would be impossible to consider modern literature without Mrs. Dalloway with its unfortunate light into Woolf's own life and demise.  Equally, To the Lighthouse , is remarkable for its insights into how a family thrives and does not thrive, how two people relate and refuse to relate. You really don't get much more pointed in such a discussion than this passage found on the very first page of the novel: from To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf "But," said his father, stopping in front of the drawing-room window, "it won't be fine." Had there been an axe handy, a poker, or any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father's bre...