A Vision of Something

Religion is the vision of something which stands
beyond, behind and within the passing flux of immediate things;
something which is real, and yet waiting to be realized;
something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts;
something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension;
something whose possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach;
something which is the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.

                        Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Perhaps the World Ends Here

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.

The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.

We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.

It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.

At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.

Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.

This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.

Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.

We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.

At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.

Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

Joy Harjo 

 

 

 

 

 

New ideas

The vitality of thought is in adventure.
    Ideas won't keep.
        Something must be done about them.
When the idea is new, its custodians have fervor,
    live for it, and, if need be, die for it.

         Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fierce quiet

We can make our minds so like still water
    that beings gather about us that they may see,
        it may be, their own images,
            and so live for a moment with a clearer,
                perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.

                        William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

 

 

 

 

What's left?

Inspiring people without leaving them with a future,
            that’s entertainment not leadership.

                                    Werner Erhard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Into the clear sweet air

I believe in the vast potentialities of mankind.
    But see everywhere a wide disparity
        between what they can be and what they are.
That is what I want to say in writing.
    I want to say the genius of the human race is mongrelized;
        I want to find out how mankind can be helped
            out of the animal kingdom into the clear sweet air.

                        Clifford Odets, Letter to John Mason Brown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First things first

When starting out to build a world,
        One starts first with oneself.

                        Langston Hughes