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The transformation of the world
         is brought about by the transformation of oneself.

                    Krishnamurti, The First and Last Freedom

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem #657

I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--

Of Chambers as the Cedars--
Impregnable of Eye--
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky--

Of Visitors--the fairest--
For Occupation--This--
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise—

                          Emily Dickinson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: A Brief for the Defense

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.

                                  Jack Gilbert

 

 

 

 

 

Sad but true

A century ago, scarcity had to be endured;
        today, it has to be enforced.

                 Murray Bookchin, Post-Scarcity Anarchism

 

 

 

 

 

 

Invest in the future

Someone's sitting in the shade today
        because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

                    Warren Buffett, Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roots

The root of all good manners is good feeling.
            Teach yourself to be kind.

                Percy Arthur Barnett, The Little Book of Health & Courtesy

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 15: Best Friend's Day

So long as we love we serve;
so long as we are loved by others,
I would almost say that we are indispensable;
and no man is useless while he has a friend.

        Robert Louis Stevenson, Lay Morals and Other Essays