Sanity

Developing an adequate response to rejection,
    neither defensive nor sentimental,
        lies at the heart of any serious attempt at sanity.

                     Alain de Botton, Twitter 9/9/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

The decider

The final arbitrator in philosophy
        is not how we think
                but what we do.

Ian Hacking
Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science

 

 

 

 

 

 

In memory of those who died serving their country

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy
        forget in time that men have died to win them.

                    Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

 

 

 

 

Poem for Memorial Day

Here dead lie we because we did not choose
    To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
    But young men think it is, and we were young.

                            A. E. Housman

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Say yes quickly

Forget your life. Say God is Great. Get up.
You think you know what time it is. It’s time to pray.
You’ve carved so many little figurines, too many.
Don’t knock on any random door like a beggar.
Reach your long hand out to another door, beyond where
You go on the street, the street
where everyone says, “How are you?”
and no one says How aren’t you?

Tomorrow you’ll see what you’ve broken and torn tonight,
thrashing in the dark. Inside you
there’s an artist you don’t know about.
He’s not interested in how things look different in moonlight.

If you are here unfaithfully with us,
you’re causing terrible damage.
If you’ve opened your loving to God’s love,
you’re helping people you don’t know
and have never seen.

Is what I say true? Say yes quickly,
if you know, if you’ve known it
from before the beginning of the universe.

                            Rumi

 

 

 

 

Worlds

The words we use are the worlds we live in.

                        Richard Ford, interview in Rumpus

 

 

 

 

Play!

Wonder Woman:    Poor child!
                              You've lived a terrible life- gloomy. tragic.
                              You're fun starved! You must learn to play!

                                        William Moulton Marston, Sensation Comics #27 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Limits of language

Using words to describe magic
    is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef.

            Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues