Although Dewey's book is incredibly ill written, it seemed to me after several rereadings to have a feeling of intimacy with the inside of the cosmos that I found unequalled. So methought God would have spoken had He been inarticulate but keenly desirous to tell you how it was.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Holmes-Pollack Letters, Vol. 2, p. 287.
Learning is the new form of labor.
— Shoshana Zuboff
The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him: "What are you going through?"
— Waiting for God, Simone Weil
I overheard at a New Age whole life seminar: "Some of it seemed so gimicky."
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
— Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt
Therefore: God becomes as we are, that we may be as He is.
William Blake, There Is No Natural Religion
Abandon is a good word to describe what happens to a tennis player who feels he has nothing to lose. He stops caring about the outcome and plays all out. This is the true meaning of detachment ... it is caring, yet not caring; it is effortless effort. It happens when one lets go the attachment to the results of one's actions and allows the increased energy to come to bear on the action itself. In the language of karma yoga, this is called action without attachment to the fruits of action, and ironically when this state is achieved the results are the best possible.
— W. Timothy Gallway, The Inner Game of Tennis, p. 138.
[Paraphrase] Timothy Leary to Ram Das:
You know, memory is almost the most important thing; but, there is something greater — although I don't remember what it is.
A Libertarian is a Republican who doesn't believe in God. The "flat tax" is about greed.
Source unknown
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
— George Fernandes
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
So You Say
What you want to do tomorrow, do it today, and what you want to do today, do it now.
— Kabir
Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented.
— George Braque
Uplifting, without being bad for your teeth.
— Terri Hemmert, WXRT
Ideals are like stars; we steer by them, not towards them.
— John Dewey, Early Works, 4:262 (cf. Middle Works, 14:156)
Only questions which cannot be answered with scientific precision have any real significance.
— E. F. Schumacher
His brother signed his letter:
Johann Van Beethoven — Landowner
Beethovan signed his reply:
Ludwig Van Beethoven — Brainowner
If you're not keeping score, you're only practicing.
— Miliken, C.E.O.
The "ought" is the "is" of action.
— John Dewey, Early Works, 3:108-9
— Kabir
Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented.
— George Braque
Uplifting, without being bad for your teeth.
— Terri Hemmert, WXRT
Ideals are like stars; we steer by them, not towards them.
— John Dewey, Early Works, 4:262 (cf. Middle Works, 14:156)
Only questions which cannot be answered with scientific precision have any real significance.
— E. F. Schumacher
His brother signed his letter:
Johann Van Beethoven — Landowner
Beethovan signed his reply:
Ludwig Van Beethoven — Brainowner
If you're not keeping score, you're only practicing.
— Miliken, C.E.O.
The "ought" is the "is" of action.
— John Dewey, Early Works, 3:108-9
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Welcome to My Shack
The reason that Obama is failing was well set out in an old issue of Sirp ja Vasar, the Estonian weekly: "It is an error to think that filling an unethical structure with ethical elements would make the structure ethical. Only these unmatching elements will be desrtroyed."
— "Hello, Perestroika!" p.17.
Even with enormous uncertainties, some courses of action are better than others. But you shouldn't be very confident of your choices. Actions that acknowledge a high degree of uncertainty are often very different from actions that don't. It's frightening to think that you might not know something, but more frightening to think that, by and large, the world is run by people who have faith that they know exactly what's going on.
— Amos Tversky
The great French author Flaubert says, "The principle thing in this world is to keep one's soul aloft." I think that sentence is worthy of immortality.
This is a beautiful world, filled with glory and loveliness, but it is also a cruel world, filled with pain, suffering, confusion, war and death. It is not always easy, and only strong men and women live in it successfully. God never meant life to be easy, for He wants His children to be strong. And the only way to do that is to keep your soul aloft.
— Norman Vincent Peale, "Your Hope Can Come True," April, 1985.
Look for those who seek the truth; avoid those who think they've found it.
— Vaclav Havel
The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good people ... and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them.
— Theodore Roosevelt
Intellectuals Are The Shoeshine Boys Of The Ruling Elite
— LP title of the group Killdozer
Someone once said: "In our youth we collect materials to build a bridge to the moon. And in our old age we use those materials to build a shack."
— Clifford Odets, "Rocket to the Moon"
Pound had to go to Europe ... Try to imagine Pound in Chicago, it's absurd!
— Alfred Kazin
— "Hello, Perestroika!" p.17.
Even with enormous uncertainties, some courses of action are better than others. But you shouldn't be very confident of your choices. Actions that acknowledge a high degree of uncertainty are often very different from actions that don't. It's frightening to think that you might not know something, but more frightening to think that, by and large, the world is run by people who have faith that they know exactly what's going on.
— Amos Tversky
The great French author Flaubert says, "The principle thing in this world is to keep one's soul aloft." I think that sentence is worthy of immortality.
This is a beautiful world, filled with glory and loveliness, but it is also a cruel world, filled with pain, suffering, confusion, war and death. It is not always easy, and only strong men and women live in it successfully. God never meant life to be easy, for He wants His children to be strong. And the only way to do that is to keep your soul aloft.
— Norman Vincent Peale, "Your Hope Can Come True," April, 1985.
Look for those who seek the truth; avoid those who think they've found it.
— Vaclav Havel
The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good people ... and the self-restraint to keep from meddling with them.
— Theodore Roosevelt
Intellectuals Are The Shoeshine Boys Of The Ruling Elite
— LP title of the group Killdozer
Someone once said: "In our youth we collect materials to build a bridge to the moon. And in our old age we use those materials to build a shack."
— Clifford Odets, "Rocket to the Moon"
Pound had to go to Europe ... Try to imagine Pound in Chicago, it's absurd!
— Alfred Kazin
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Re-Considered
Adults are kids with crusts around them.
— Lubin
If we can not have a single, rational religion, then it is best to have a multiplicity of religions, each one of which is willing to tolerate the others.
— Voltaire
Learning is, most often, figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go beyond what you currently think.
— Jerome Brunner, In Search of Mind
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
— Bertrand Russell
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
— Hector Berlioz
A rabbi — who lived and preached a life of virtue while his congregation ignored him and went on with their selfish ways — was asked, "Rabbi, why do you bother? Nobody listens. You're not changing anything." And the rabbi replied, "But you misunderstand. I don't do it to change them. I do it to keep them from changing me."
— Source unknown, in Seeds of Peace
When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.
— Lord Melbourne
Vision is like a lighthouse, showing the way and pointing out hazards. It must be slightly beyond reach, but must not be an impossible dream.
— Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro (software developer) and India's richest man at the time
— Lubin
If we can not have a single, rational religion, then it is best to have a multiplicity of religions, each one of which is willing to tolerate the others.
— Voltaire
Learning is, most often, figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go beyond what you currently think.
— Jerome Brunner, In Search of Mind
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
— Bertrand Russell
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
— Hector Berlioz
A rabbi — who lived and preached a life of virtue while his congregation ignored him and went on with their selfish ways — was asked, "Rabbi, why do you bother? Nobody listens. You're not changing anything." And the rabbi replied, "But you misunderstand. I don't do it to change them. I do it to keep them from changing me."
— Source unknown, in Seeds of Peace
When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.
— Lord Melbourne
Vision is like a lighthouse, showing the way and pointing out hazards. It must be slightly beyond reach, but must not be an impossible dream.
— Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro (software developer) and India's richest man at the time
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Speculativity
One wave may be bigger than another, but it is not wetter.
— Kirpal Singh
Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food.
— Austin O'Malley
Time, distance, weight, etc., all those qualities (mental states, hypothetical constructs) which give extention to the otherwise groundless ego, are merely lapses, pauses, outright errors in the nature of thought. If everything occurred perfectly — if a person's perceptions were perfect — the universe would be instantaneous, weightless, and eternal!
Only because the sun is so large is its total production of energy so enormous. Pound for pound, the sun actually produces less heat than the human body.
Sun = 2 calories/pound
Human body = 10 calories/pound
Paraphrase of Hubble:
Every place is the center of the expansion in regard to the universe.
Mountains and ocean beds are the youngest portions of the Earth. Flat central plate regions are the oldest. High and low tend to become level with the passage of time — gravity is actually horizontal. It stretches outward on the dish of the Earth and the bowl of the sky and not (concave) an inward, downward force on the old spherical Earth.
When you concentrate on doing some act, you cannot at the same instant "think about" that act. The "sphere of consciousness" slides about the mind examining any other element(s) but cannot at the same instant examine itself (the sphere of consciousness as it is then constituted). This "sphere of consciousness" may be constituted of varying numbers and relations of "mind" elements.
People on the bottom should be better than people on the top, or there's no hope for mankind.
— Norman Mailer
— Kirpal Singh
Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food.
— Austin O'Malley
Time, distance, weight, etc., all those qualities (mental states, hypothetical constructs) which give extention to the otherwise groundless ego, are merely lapses, pauses, outright errors in the nature of thought. If everything occurred perfectly — if a person's perceptions were perfect — the universe would be instantaneous, weightless, and eternal!
Only because the sun is so large is its total production of energy so enormous. Pound for pound, the sun actually produces less heat than the human body.
Sun = 2 calories/pound
Human body = 10 calories/pound
Paraphrase of Hubble:
Every place is the center of the expansion in regard to the universe.
Mountains and ocean beds are the youngest portions of the Earth. Flat central plate regions are the oldest. High and low tend to become level with the passage of time — gravity is actually horizontal. It stretches outward on the dish of the Earth and the bowl of the sky and not (concave) an inward, downward force on the old spherical Earth.
When you concentrate on doing some act, you cannot at the same instant "think about" that act. The "sphere of consciousness" slides about the mind examining any other element(s) but cannot at the same instant examine itself (the sphere of consciousness as it is then constituted). This "sphere of consciousness" may be constituted of varying numbers and relations of "mind" elements.
People on the bottom should be better than people on the top, or there's no hope for mankind.
— Norman Mailer
Monday, February 22, 2010
An Old Memory
The paper I picked out today presents some old reminiscences I wrote many years ago on the occasion of Brian and Sue's retirement from operating the No Exit Cafe in Rogers Park, Illinois.
It was a comfortable place to hear jazz of a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, or some good local folk singers on many nights, or to just sit and read, drinking coffee or orzata. In general it was a sort of Hippie operation that hadn't lost its Beatnik edge.
The occasion was a party to celebrate Brian and Sue's retirement after many years of keeping the place real and everyone was present that day. So here goes:
I think first of the Sartrean play of that name in which man confronts the blank walls of his existence with the emptiness of his potentiality. But then I think about today; one of those moments when you know God smiles. You know there are many when He cries. But here is one when He says, "Yes, yes, man can do some things well."
When I think back to the No Exit, I remember a particular incident from many months ago. Brian and Sue, circled by beautiful children, stood in the back of the room embraced in peace, lost in the moment. Their hands were in each others back pockets, a gesture perhaps invented in the Sixties, but surely made from eternity.
Three-fourths of the world is water, you know — icy, cold and pure. God's cynosure that stays the flood with rainbow hand.
It was a comfortable place to hear jazz of a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, or some good local folk singers on many nights, or to just sit and read, drinking coffee or orzata. In general it was a sort of Hippie operation that hadn't lost its Beatnik edge.
The occasion was a party to celebrate Brian and Sue's retirement after many years of keeping the place real and everyone was present that day. So here goes:
I think first of the Sartrean play of that name in which man confronts the blank walls of his existence with the emptiness of his potentiality. But then I think about today; one of those moments when you know God smiles. You know there are many when He cries. But here is one when He says, "Yes, yes, man can do some things well."
When I think back to the No Exit, I remember a particular incident from many months ago. Brian and Sue, circled by beautiful children, stood in the back of the room embraced in peace, lost in the moment. Their hands were in each others back pockets, a gesture perhaps invented in the Sixties, but surely made from eternity.
Three-fourths of the world is water, you know — icy, cold and pure. God's cynosure that stays the flood with rainbow hand.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
After Thought
"Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions not insufficient hypotheses."
— Samuel Butler
"A man has died
His body is
Crumbled to dust:
But, words
Cause him to exist
In the mouths
Of men."
— Egyptian paraphrase
Sticky places provide traction; therefore, in difficulties there exist opportunities, or, setbacks become advantages, etc.
The bosses have all the aces — it's a good thing that there are still a few jokers left in the deck to keep the game honest. Although it must be remembered that too many jokers can spoil the game.
With too much to dust you become slave to your servants.
I wrote it, but the only importance it has is what it may say to you.
On retirement:
More and more I wear my wristwatch less and less; or, how time lies.
"What is that which is not eternal?"
— Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Paragraph 59.
Reading Swedenborg = afterlife assurance.
— Samuel Butler
"A man has died
His body is
Crumbled to dust:
But, words
Cause him to exist
In the mouths
Of men."
— Egyptian paraphrase
Sticky places provide traction; therefore, in difficulties there exist opportunities, or, setbacks become advantages, etc.
The bosses have all the aces — it's a good thing that there are still a few jokers left in the deck to keep the game honest. Although it must be remembered that too many jokers can spoil the game.
With too much to dust you become slave to your servants.
I wrote it, but the only importance it has is what it may say to you.
On retirement:
More and more I wear my wristwatch less and less; or, how time lies.
"What is that which is not eternal?"
— Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, Paragraph 59.
Reading Swedenborg = afterlife assurance.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Circling the Square
Entries on my blog that have no citation are always originally by me.
Copyright, James R. Hauck, 2010:
"Man, desiring no longer to be the image of God, becomes the image of the machine."
— Nicholas Berdyaev, The Fate of Man in the Modern World, 1935.
cf. my own: "Man, the semi-permanent extension of a machine."
I remember Dr. Jerry Allen saying many, many years ago, regarding Night Thoughts by Edward Young and thinking about fine leather-bound editions, such as the Complete Works of Churchill, that someone should do "The Day Thoughts of Dwight David Eisenhower."
They asked him why he was crying and he replied: "Someone has just bought a book which he doesn't even intend to read — and it reminds me that I have never really read a book."
In biblical days a man wise enough to see the "end of days" was deemed a prophet, but now that it is plainly there for all to see — where's the profit?
To say we did not speak is to say more than was not said.
If all preachers had to be saints — there would be no organized religion.
If everything would forego eating on the same day — nothing would die.
"Life contains a number of vivid sense-pleasures, and the gap of despondency and boredom between them can be filled more or less adequately by hard work, sleep, the movies, drink and daydreaming. Old age brings lethargy, and morphia will help you at the end. Life is not so bad, if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination. The disciplines proposed by the spiritual teachers are drastic, and the lazy will shrink back from them. They are tedious, also, and this will discourage the impatient. Their immediate results are not showy, and this will deter the ambitious. Their practice is apt to make you appear ridiculous to your neighbors. Vanity, sloth and desire will all intervene to prevent a man from setting his foot upon the path of religious effort."
— Christopher Isherwood, "Hypothesis and Belief"
Copyright, James R. Hauck, 2010:
"Man, desiring no longer to be the image of God, becomes the image of the machine."
— Nicholas Berdyaev, The Fate of Man in the Modern World, 1935.
cf. my own: "Man, the semi-permanent extension of a machine."
I remember Dr. Jerry Allen saying many, many years ago, regarding Night Thoughts by Edward Young and thinking about fine leather-bound editions, such as the Complete Works of Churchill, that someone should do "The Day Thoughts of Dwight David Eisenhower."
They asked him why he was crying and he replied: "Someone has just bought a book which he doesn't even intend to read — and it reminds me that I have never really read a book."
In biblical days a man wise enough to see the "end of days" was deemed a prophet, but now that it is plainly there for all to see — where's the profit?
To say we did not speak is to say more than was not said.
If all preachers had to be saints — there would be no organized religion.
If everything would forego eating on the same day — nothing would die.
"Life contains a number of vivid sense-pleasures, and the gap of despondency and boredom between them can be filled more or less adequately by hard work, sleep, the movies, drink and daydreaming. Old age brings lethargy, and morphia will help you at the end. Life is not so bad, if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination. The disciplines proposed by the spiritual teachers are drastic, and the lazy will shrink back from them. They are tedious, also, and this will discourage the impatient. Their immediate results are not showy, and this will deter the ambitious. Their practice is apt to make you appear ridiculous to your neighbors. Vanity, sloth and desire will all intervene to prevent a man from setting his foot upon the path of religious effort."
— Christopher Isherwood, "Hypothesis and Belief"
Friday, February 19, 2010
Literary Litter
"Traveling is a fool's paradise"
— R. W. Emerson, Essays: First Series, "Self-Reliance," p. 49.
As Dr. Johnson remarks of Christopher Smart after he was interred in mad-house: he still gets exercise in the garden — He used to get it by walking to the alehouse; however, he was always carried back.
from The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes
"A woman is herself not inspiration."
— Tom Fields, Black Mountain Review, 1954.
I need a hundred years, or one good day with God's help, to finish this BOOK!
— James Hauck, March 16, 2001.
Re: Why teach Charles Dickens to kids?
If you have something good you put a fence around it. It's the same reason the Bible starts with Genesis and ends with Revelation. The books which are hardest to get into protect amateurs from entering. There must be some commitment/intuition to open it.
God knows, why should I bother writing; God exists (in and through other people, in uses) — I must communicate.
James Hauck, December 8, 1989.
Unless God is speaking to you — you are an idle worshipper.
(cf. Habbakuk, Ch. 2)
Even in your free-will you can't do anything that would "surprise" God — but you sure-as-Hell can disappoint Him!
(cf. Socinus' Temporalistic Theism)
Understanding is instant — acceptance takes years. (Relates to the mind's comprehension of anything.)
— R. W. Emerson, Essays: First Series, "Self-Reliance," p. 49.
As Dr. Johnson remarks of Christopher Smart after he was interred in mad-house: he still gets exercise in the garden — He used to get it by walking to the alehouse; however, he was always carried back.
from The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes
"A woman is herself not inspiration."
— Tom Fields, Black Mountain Review, 1954.
I need a hundred years, or one good day with God's help, to finish this BOOK!
— James Hauck, March 16, 2001.
Re: Why teach Charles Dickens to kids?
If you have something good you put a fence around it. It's the same reason the Bible starts with Genesis and ends with Revelation. The books which are hardest to get into protect amateurs from entering. There must be some commitment/intuition to open it.
God knows, why should I bother writing; God exists (in and through other people, in uses) — I must communicate.
James Hauck, December 8, 1989.
Unless God is speaking to you — you are an idle worshipper.
(cf. Habbakuk, Ch. 2)
Even in your free-will you can't do anything that would "surprise" God — but you sure-as-Hell can disappoint Him!
(cf. Socinus' Temporalistic Theism)
Understanding is instant — acceptance takes years. (Relates to the mind's comprehension of anything.)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Idle Thoughts?
"Poetry is made only of beautiful details."
— Voltaire
The power once thought to reside in idols has been sublimated into the overpowering feeling of beauty invested in objects. That force which overpowers or awes us in an object is seen as that object's beauty. Feeling of beauty = submission!
To say all die is to state the obvious — but to understate the important (namely, the nature of their living).
"In the geometrical analysis of a line a, one indefinite section of it is called x; the other is not y, as it would be in ordinary life, but a - x. This is the reason that mathematical language has such great advantages over ordinary speech.
— George Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799), quoted in Mathematical Magpie, p. 253, Fadiman (ed.)
In 1975 I heard Elgeti say: "It's not a misquote, it's an adjustment."
Never visit an artist uninvited, before noon — if he rises early, he'll be working; and if he's a late riser, he'll be asleep.
"...I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it: we must search for fragments, splinters, toe-nails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resucitating the body and soul."
— Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
Compliment a sage to his face alone, the rest need compliments before others!
— Voltaire
The power once thought to reside in idols has been sublimated into the overpowering feeling of beauty invested in objects. That force which overpowers or awes us in an object is seen as that object's beauty. Feeling of beauty = submission!
To say all die is to state the obvious — but to understate the important (namely, the nature of their living).
"In the geometrical analysis of a line a, one indefinite section of it is called x; the other is not y, as it would be in ordinary life, but a - x. This is the reason that mathematical language has such great advantages over ordinary speech.
— George Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799), quoted in Mathematical Magpie, p. 253, Fadiman (ed.)
In 1975 I heard Elgeti say: "It's not a misquote, it's an adjustment."
Never visit an artist uninvited, before noon — if he rises early, he'll be working; and if he's a late riser, he'll be asleep.
"...I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it: we must search for fragments, splinters, toe-nails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resucitating the body and soul."
— Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
Compliment a sage to his face alone, the rest need compliments before others!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Easier Seeing Than Seen
As frightened as the eyes of dogs and horses...
I thought I was a genius when I was worried about being different from others — I knew I was one when I became glad of being different.
Represent visits by "poor" relations to rich relatives as "driveway visits" — as that is as far as hospitality is extended.
Hearing is perhaps fifty percent listening.
Let's make literature popular — not make "popular literature."
Drowning men die of boredom — their lives pass before them!
Many women languish — dreaming of the Prince and afraid to kiss the toad.
Consider that the cocoon is always uglier than the butterfly.
Poor Bodhisattva —
Sitting on the
Bodi-seat
All day long —
Tough shit!
— Idiot—
Like the man who thought that chickens were hard and smooth, because he'd never seen one out of its egg.
I remember Elgeti's note in the back of Borges' Labyrinths:
"... on the absense of access; Creativity; the fumblings of a multidirected mind."
From page 0000000 of Double or Nothing by Raymond Federman: "Now some people might say that this situation is not very encouraging ... but one must reply that it is not meant to encourage those who say that."
Orderliness is merely an attempt to arrest movement!
I thought I was a genius when I was worried about being different from others — I knew I was one when I became glad of being different.
Represent visits by "poor" relations to rich relatives as "driveway visits" — as that is as far as hospitality is extended.
Hearing is perhaps fifty percent listening.
Let's make literature popular — not make "popular literature."
Drowning men die of boredom — their lives pass before them!
Many women languish — dreaming of the Prince and afraid to kiss the toad.
Consider that the cocoon is always uglier than the butterfly.
Poor Bodhisattva —
Sitting on the
Bodi-seat
All day long —
Tough shit!
— Idiot—
Like the man who thought that chickens were hard and smooth, because he'd never seen one out of its egg.
I remember Elgeti's note in the back of Borges' Labyrinths:
"... on the absense of access; Creativity; the fumblings of a multidirected mind."
From page 0000000 of Double or Nothing by Raymond Federman: "Now some people might say that this situation is not very encouraging ... but one must reply that it is not meant to encourage those who say that."
Orderliness is merely an attempt to arrest movement!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Know To How
You'll always be right if you limit discussion to things that you know — but then, how will you ever grow?
To be charitable, I'll say that I've raised his status as a writer from unpublishable to unpublished.
Real life is the metaphor — reality is something else.
The essence of Hell is the absence of Heaven. (9-3-2003)
Don't blink, you might miss something — don't look, you might see something.
From dry to sober — the hardest step.
Knowledge is power —comprehended experience is the highest form of knowledge.
Humor is solace for the fearful.
To be charitable, I'll say that I've raised his status as a writer from unpublishable to unpublished.
Real life is the metaphor — reality is something else.
The essence of Hell is the absence of Heaven. (9-3-2003)
Don't blink, you might miss something — don't look, you might see something.
From dry to sober — the hardest step.
Knowledge is power —comprehended experience is the highest form of knowledge.
Humor is solace for the fearful.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Well Puzzled Thoughts?
Regarding the journey — you've already arrived. Where do you go tomorrow?
Coined word "withoput" meaning conditions which you can't change and therefore must accept, put up with. The negative would be "withnoput."
Regarding some "flashier" person getting ahead: Hey, this is for life — I'm not running a sprint.
Nonsequitors in the sense of Joyce (literary) — or, in the sense of Joyce's daughter (insane)?
Doing is knowing to be.
Bly's "This Tree Will be here a Thousand Years" — Bah! Augenblick! Even the raindrop is water! (Truth: A piece is the whole.)
Every person I meet holds a piece to the puzzle of my life.
Science is about things that change — Spirituality is about things that never change.
When God plays chess — how many moves ahead do you think He contemplates?
Poetry is easy — breathing is hard.
All great revolutions have started in the library.
Coined word "withoput" meaning conditions which you can't change and therefore must accept, put up with. The negative would be "withnoput."
Regarding some "flashier" person getting ahead: Hey, this is for life — I'm not running a sprint.
Nonsequitors in the sense of Joyce (literary) — or, in the sense of Joyce's daughter (insane)?
Doing is knowing to be.
Bly's "This Tree Will be here a Thousand Years" — Bah! Augenblick! Even the raindrop is water! (Truth: A piece is the whole.)
Every person I meet holds a piece to the puzzle of my life.
Science is about things that change — Spirituality is about things that never change.
When God plays chess — how many moves ahead do you think He contemplates?
Poetry is easy — breathing is hard.
All great revolutions have started in the library.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Considered Considerations
It's our parents fault what we are — it's our fault if we stay that way.
You would not like it that I am here, but you have led me here, and I'll have my say.
If God's mind didn't include just everything, we certainly wouldn't be in it.
While it is true that water seeks its own level — even a puddle reflects the sky.
About my "sayings":
You might call them "laser language." If you bounce these words against themselves enough times, with clean enough filters, you get a clean, straight shaft of illuminating truth as output.
Inaugurate the term " a branovan" for a person or an act that is overly frugal, scrimping. or penny-wise and pound foolish.
Living in the NOW determines both the past and future (thus diminishing time to zero) — shrinks actuality and enlarges reality.
No charge for free-associations — some priceless, some worth less, some none.
On Addictions:
Would the burned man seek the sun?
You would not like it that I am here, but you have led me here, and I'll have my say.
If God's mind didn't include just everything, we certainly wouldn't be in it.
While it is true that water seeks its own level — even a puddle reflects the sky.
About my "sayings":
You might call them "laser language." If you bounce these words against themselves enough times, with clean enough filters, you get a clean, straight shaft of illuminating truth as output.
Inaugurate the term " a branovan" for a person or an act that is overly frugal, scrimping. or penny-wise and pound foolish.
Living in the NOW determines both the past and future (thus diminishing time to zero) — shrinks actuality and enlarges reality.
No charge for free-associations — some priceless, some worth less, some none.
On Addictions:
Would the burned man seek the sun?
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Quotable Quotes
"The outcome of everything is the way it happened and the way it happened is the story of your life."
— Virgil Thompson in "Virgil Thompson at 90"
"What would you have me do?
Search out some powerful patronage, and be
Like crawling ivy clinging to a tree?
No thank you. Dedicate, like some others,
Verses to plutocrats, while caution smothers
Whatever might offend my lord and master?
No thank you ... Labouring to write a line of such good breeding
Its only fault is that it's not worth reading?
To ingratiate myself, abject with fear,
And fawn and flatter to avoid a sneer?
No thank you, no thank you, and again, no thank you."
— Cyrano de Bergerac, Act II, Edmond Rostand
"I've lost more than I won — but you win a lot!"
— a woman overheard at a casino
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..."
— Luke, 11; 1-4
"The only temptation for man is to be abandoned to his own resources in the presence of evil. His nothingness is then proved experimentally."
— Concerning the Our Father, Simone Weil
— Virgil Thompson in "Virgil Thompson at 90"
"What would you have me do?
Search out some powerful patronage, and be
Like crawling ivy clinging to a tree?
No thank you. Dedicate, like some others,
Verses to plutocrats, while caution smothers
Whatever might offend my lord and master?
No thank you ... Labouring to write a line of such good breeding
Its only fault is that it's not worth reading?
To ingratiate myself, abject with fear,
And fawn and flatter to avoid a sneer?
No thank you, no thank you, and again, no thank you."
— Cyrano de Bergerac, Act II, Edmond Rostand
"I've lost more than I won — but you win a lot!"
— a woman overheard at a casino
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..."
— Luke, 11; 1-4
"The only temptation for man is to be abandoned to his own resources in the presence of evil. His nothingness is then proved experimentally."
— Concerning the Our Father, Simone Weil
Friday, February 12, 2010
A Sort of Some
I was trembling too much to plant the acorn, when, out of nowhere, lightning hit the oak that killed me.
My mind has been boggled by the big —
My mind has been boggled by the small —
But a mind just hasn't been boggled
Till it's been boggled by the All!
Someone, perhaps it was me, has said that "Life is not such a journey as I would care to take alone; the world is not such a place as I would care to walk through alone."
Hauck's Law: When something falls on the floor — If it's hard, it will be sharp; if it's liquid, it will be slippery; and you may be certain that your foot will find it.
A person who could be surprised by this comment is a person who would be surprised too often to be of any interest to me.
Copernicus reversed (righted?) the order (or the knowledge) of the physical universe — Swedenborg righted our concept of the spiritual universe. What were our "idealist"* conceptions are the actual and our individual, "actual" understandings are abstractions from that reality.
*cf. Durrell's "Big, oblong words" or abstractions.
I think of a city like London or Paris only as though seen from a thousand-meter height; but, Chicago you can take at sea level.
If you live constantly in fear of the unlikely, the inevitable will undoubtedly catch you unaware.
My mind has been boggled by the big —
My mind has been boggled by the small —
But a mind just hasn't been boggled
Till it's been boggled by the All!
Someone, perhaps it was me, has said that "Life is not such a journey as I would care to take alone; the world is not such a place as I would care to walk through alone."
Hauck's Law: When something falls on the floor — If it's hard, it will be sharp; if it's liquid, it will be slippery; and you may be certain that your foot will find it.
A person who could be surprised by this comment is a person who would be surprised too often to be of any interest to me.
Copernicus reversed (righted?) the order (or the knowledge) of the physical universe — Swedenborg righted our concept of the spiritual universe. What were our "idealist"* conceptions are the actual and our individual, "actual" understandings are abstractions from that reality.
*cf. Durrell's "Big, oblong words" or abstractions.
I think of a city like London or Paris only as though seen from a thousand-meter height; but, Chicago you can take at sea level.
If you live constantly in fear of the unlikely, the inevitable will undoubtedly catch you unaware.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Distant Thoughts
When I began living in a condo with a distant art studio/book storage space, I began calling my filing system "Stuff Here Iterated There," or "Stuff's Here I'm There," or, for short, "S.H.I.T.!"
It was the end of the world, and good things were happening.
Information can lead to knowledge, but knowledge is only amunition — Wisdom is Power!
Understand it or forget it. An apposite comment is like a joke — explanation kills it.
After seeing "Voices and Visions" William Carlos Williams feature on PBS:
A reflection on Alan Ginzburg's reflection on William Carlos Williams reflections about Paterson, New Jersey's long Falls.
Look, Look! He stared at Paterson's Falls and saw no God, but only water reflecting itself?! An objection to bare reflection exists in large unformed drops beneath the surface — bursting only to be free.
Title for one grouping of the Relicrecsemblica:
Start reading anywhere, turn the pages at random, make up your own story.
********
It was the end of the world, and good things were happening.
Information can lead to knowledge, but knowledge is only amunition — Wisdom is Power!
Understand it or forget it. An apposite comment is like a joke — explanation kills it.
After seeing "Voices and Visions" William Carlos Williams feature on PBS:
A reflection on Alan Ginzburg's reflection on William Carlos Williams reflections about Paterson, New Jersey's long Falls.
Look, Look! He stared at Paterson's Falls and saw no God, but only water reflecting itself?! An objection to bare reflection exists in large unformed drops beneath the surface — bursting only to be free.
Title for one grouping of the Relicrecsemblica:
Start reading anywhere, turn the pages at random, make up your own story.
********
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Short Sorts
It was John's turn to reset the atomic clock — but Steve got to say "Now!"
Some day ants will discover the sky and man his spirit — I just remembered that I know what the Buddha knows.
Bush wacked by fuzzy math.
As though the Master waited for someone to strike!
When you die it becomes important how you lived.
I've spent my life, unfortunately, pursuing a deamon that didn't pursue me.
Things you create increase in value; things you buy decrease in value.
The story of my life — "I hope you didn't pay for that."
Immanuel's epitaph: I Kan't leave Koenigsburg.
Some day ants will discover the sky and man his spirit — I just remembered that I know what the Buddha knows.
Bush wacked by fuzzy math.
As though the Master waited for someone to strike!
When you die it becomes important how you lived.
I've spent my life, unfortunately, pursuing a deamon that didn't pursue me.
Things you create increase in value; things you buy decrease in value.
The story of my life — "I hope you didn't pay for that."
Immanuel's epitaph: I Kan't leave Koenigsburg.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Viral Video | Stephen Colbert | Google | Yahoo | AOL | Apple | Cellphone
Thought I'd entitle this blog with the most blogged words so I could be found here in blog-o-sphere.
From the Collectanea
Entries that have no citation are always original to me, copyright 2010:
The Relicrecsemblica are boxes filled with scraps of little precious thoughts too heavy for even Georges Braque to lift, and too slight for Gertrude Stein to comment upon.
Long on explanation, short on information = obfuscation.
God's mercy: When I'm not strong enough to get over a hurdle or smart enough to go around it, He eases me through it — eventually!
Shakespeare's "Nothing comes from nothing" is simultaneously an indictment of inaction and an incitement to action.
Comfort comes as a guest, lingers to become the host, and stays to enslave us.
— Swami Chinmaya
"Life is change ... growth is optional ... choose wisely."
— Dr. Kiran Bedi, "Think over the thought."
It's all ephemera
Do you know what God is?
One can know only the tiniest portion of the infinite — however, you don't need to know physics to cross the road.
The Relicrecsemblica are boxes filled with scraps of little precious thoughts too heavy for even Georges Braque to lift, and too slight for Gertrude Stein to comment upon.
Long on explanation, short on information = obfuscation.
God's mercy: When I'm not strong enough to get over a hurdle or smart enough to go around it, He eases me through it — eventually!
Shakespeare's "Nothing comes from nothing" is simultaneously an indictment of inaction and an incitement to action.
Comfort comes as a guest, lingers to become the host, and stays to enslave us.
— Swami Chinmaya
"Life is change ... growth is optional ... choose wisely."
— Dr. Kiran Bedi, "Think over the thought."
It's all ephemera
Do you know what God is?
One can know only the tiniest portion of the infinite — however, you don't need to know physics to cross the road.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sayings
To Muso Soseki:
Words, no words — walk around by going between.
Seek an enlightened detachment — but
one that leads to heightened action.
You can say it first — but will it last!
It's all just advice, until you use it — then
it's a solution.
Musical works have a soloist —
they should also have a dissonist!
East Indian saying:
The hammer's blow will break glass — but it will forge iron.
Words, no words — walk around by going between.
Seek an enlightened detachment — but
one that leads to heightened action.
You can say it first — but will it last!
It's all just advice, until you use it — then
it's a solution.
Musical works have a soloist —
they should also have a dissonist!
East Indian saying:
The hammer's blow will break glass — but it will forge iron.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Politics politic?
There is a Chinese proverb which says "One dog barks at something, and a hundred bark at the sound."
"Men of stamina, knowing the way of life,
Steadily keep to it;
Unstable men, knowing the way of life,
Keep to it or not according to occasion;
Stupid men, knowing the way the way of life,
And having once laughed at it, laugh again the louder.
If you need to be sure which way is right, you can tell by their
/laughing at it.
They fling the old charges:
'A wick without oil,'
'For every step forward a step or two back.'
To such laughers a level road looks steep,
Top seems bottom,
'White appears black,'
'Enough is a lack,'
Endurance is a weakness,
Simplicity a faded flower.
But eternity is his who goes straight round the circle,
Foundation is his who can feel beyond touch,
Harmony is his who can hear beyond sound,
Pattern is his who sees beyond shape;
Life is his who can tell beyond words
Fulfillment of the unfulfilled.
— The Way of Life by Laotzu, Witter Bynner (translation)
"Men of stamina, knowing the way of life,
Steadily keep to it;
Unstable men, knowing the way of life,
Keep to it or not according to occasion;
Stupid men, knowing the way the way of life,
And having once laughed at it, laugh again the louder.
If you need to be sure which way is right, you can tell by their
/laughing at it.
They fling the old charges:
'A wick without oil,'
'For every step forward a step or two back.'
To such laughers a level road looks steep,
Top seems bottom,
'White appears black,'
'Enough is a lack,'
Endurance is a weakness,
Simplicity a faded flower.
But eternity is his who goes straight round the circle,
Foundation is his who can feel beyond touch,
Harmony is his who can hear beyond sound,
Pattern is his who sees beyond shape;
Life is his who can tell beyond words
Fulfillment of the unfulfilled.
— The Way of Life by Laotzu, Witter Bynner (translation)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Unmasked Ball
"Nobody is one block of harmony. We are all afraid of something, or we feel limited in something. We all need somebody to talk to. It would be good if we talked to each other — not just pitter-patter, but real talk. We shouldn't be so afraid, because most people really like this contact; that you show you are vulnerable makes them free to be vulnerable too. It's so much easier to be together when we drop our masks."
— Liv Ullmann
— Liv Ullmann
Friday, February 5, 2010
Symbol Vibes
from The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manley Palmer Hall:
"To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books. It has always seemed to me that symbolism should be restored to the structure of world education."
"To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books. It has always seemed to me that symbolism should be restored to the structure of world education."
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Awakening
Woke up early this morning. Since it's February, I thought I'd pull out volume 2 of the Collectanea and find a quote. So here goes:
"It is essential to know whether one is for the greater number or for the choice few." — Andre Gide, Journals, IV, p. 207, 1943.
Seems like an appropriate sentiment as we are entering an era of perpetual politicking.
"It is essential to know whether one is for the greater number or for the choice few." — Andre Gide, Journals, IV, p. 207, 1943.
Seems like an appropriate sentiment as we are entering an era of perpetual politicking.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
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Don't Blame the System
from "System" by James Hauck
.... "Of those who know the step alone does not predict the dance." This spun into his mind the ever present, mutually deterministic, intuitionally intertwining strands of the interpenetrating spheres of spirituality and materiality which have alternately plagued and supported homo sapiens sapiens in their evolutionary advancement.
.... "Of those who know the step alone does not predict the dance." This spun into his mind the ever present, mutually deterministic, intuitionally intertwining strands of the interpenetrating spheres of spirituality and materiality which have alternately plagued and supported homo sapiens sapiens in their evolutionary advancement.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Insight Out
Of course the most common sets of rules for achieving a happy life are the down-to-earth wisdom contained in proverbs and the common-sense cautionary advice traditionally given to children.
But one difference is that both proverbs and the cautionary advice given to children only address the basics....
Compare the proverbial advice to 'look before you leap' with the recommendation contained in this perverse little parable by pseudo-Surrealist Guillaume Apollinaire:
Come to the edge, he said.
They said, We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came. He pushed them.
They flew.
from The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth, p.378.
But one difference is that both proverbs and the cautionary advice given to children only address the basics....
Compare the proverbial advice to 'look before you leap' with the recommendation contained in this perverse little parable by pseudo-Surrealist Guillaume Apollinaire:
Come to the edge, he said.
They said, We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came. He pushed them.
They flew.
from The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth, p.378.
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