L'esprit de l'escalier

Borrowed from French, the expression esprit de l’escalier, or esprit d’escalier, literally wit of (the) staircase, denotes a retort or remark that occurs to a person after the opportunity to make it has passed.

It originally referred to a witty remark coming to mind on the stairs leading away from a social gathering. The image seems to have originated in Paradoxe sur le Comédien (Paradox of the Actor), an essay on theatre by the French philosopher, writer and critic Denis Diderot.

                                https://wordhistories.net/2017/05/27/esprit-descalier/ 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Psalm

I am still on a rooftop in Brooklyn
on your holy day. The harbor is before me,
Governor’s Island, Verrazano Bridge
and the Narrows. I keep in my head
what Rabbi Nachmann said about the world
being a narrow bridge and that the important thing
is not to be afraid. So on this day
I bless my mother and father, that they be
not fearful where they wander. And I
ask you to bless them and before you
close your Book of Life, your Sefer Hachayim,
remember that I always praised your world
and your splendor and that my tongue
tried to say your name on Court Street in Brooklyn.
Take me safely through the Narrows to the sea.

                            Harvey Shapiro

 

 

 

 

 

Day of Atonement

Having looked the beast of the past in the eye,
    having asked and received forgiveness
          and having made amends,

let us shut the door on the past—
    not in order to forget it
        but in order not to allow it to imprison us.

                         Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
                        Report of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission 

 

 

 

 

 

Well done

If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us,
even though we are certain to experience real sorrow, and great disappointments,
and also will probably commit great faults and do wrong things,
but it certainly is true, that it is better to be high-spirited,
even though one makes more mistakes,
than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.
It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength,
and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much,
and what is done in love, is well done.

            From The Letters of Vincent van Gogh to his Brother

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passing

When the great lord passes
    the wise peasant bows deeply
        and silently farts.

                Ethiopian proverb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: The Cast

I lost the starring part in Our Town
To Linda, a girl not half as good as me,
Who kept her eyes down
For the whole tryout, and even stuttered.

When the cast was posted
And the high school drama coach
Saw me reading it through my tears,
He put an arm around me and said,
“Now, look—things are not always as they appear.
This is not Broadway;
It’s an educational institution.
We’re here for two reasons—to put on a show,
And, more important, to help people grow.
Someday you’ll see.”

So Linda played Emily,
And she didn’t even stutter.
And I was Third Woman at the Wedding,
Watching and wondering how he knew
What she could really do
If she had the chance.

Since then I have guessed that God,
Being a whole lot smarter
Than my high school drama coach, might be offstage sometimes
With an arm around a questioning cast:
“Now, don’t try to outguess me.
Sometimes the first shall be last
And the last shall be first,
And I’ve got my own reasons.
I need some strong ones to star
And some strong ones to stand back.
And I’m going to put out front
Some you might not choose,
But you’ll see what they can really do
When they have the chance.
Mortality is an educational institution.
We’ve got to put on the show,
And, too, we’ve got to help people grow.”

As I walk through the scenes,
Watch the costumes move,
And listen to the lines
Of the powerful, the weak,
The rich, the poor,
I look at the leads with less awe than most,
And at the spear-carriers with more.                            

                    Carol Lynn Pearson 

Indivisible

We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire.
If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further —
we will realize that humanity is indivisible.
New threats make no distinction between races, nations or regions.
A new insecurity has entered every mind, regardless of wealth or status.
A deeper awareness of the bonds that bind us all —
in pain as in prosperity — has gripped young and old.

             Kofi Annan, Nobel Peace Prize lecture, 10 December 2001