Choice

Homo sapiens, the first truly free species,
is about to decommission natural selection,
the force that made us.…
Soon we must look deep within ourselves
and decide what we wish to become.

Edward Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wondering

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains,
    at the huge waves of the sea,
        at the long courses of rivers,
            at the vast compass of the ocean,
                at the circular motion of the stars;
                    and they pass by themselves without wondering.

                                    St. Augustine, Confessions

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Magic Words

In the very earliest time,
when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people
and sometimes they were animals
and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance
might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
and what people wanted to happen could happen –
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody could explain this:
That’s the way it was.

        Nalugiaq Tutanuak, Magic Words: Songs and Stories of the Netsilik Inuits

 

 

 

 

 

 

Different worlds

 The world of the happy is quite different from the world of the unhappy.   

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Explanations

Explanations exist;
    they have existed for all time;
there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—
    neat, plausible, and wrong.

                H. L. Mencken, Prejudices: Second Series 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: New York Notes

1. Caught on a side street in heavy traffic, I said to the cabbie, I should have walked. He replied, I should have been a doctor. 2. When can I get on the 11:33 I ask the guy in the information booth at the Atlantic Avenue Station. When they open the doors, he says. I am home among my people.

                                                           Harvey Shapiro

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In memorium

Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road,
    that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey.
        On the contrary, great change dominates the world,
            and unless we move with change we will become its victims.

                     Robert F. Kennedy, 1964 speech in Warsaw, Poland