Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
To Thine Own Self Be True
from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act I, Scene ii:
POLONIUS (advice to son for travel abroad)
Yet here, Laertes?
Aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail
And you are stayed for.
There, my blessing with thee.
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character.
Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.
Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear 't that th' opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.
Take each man's censure but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy,
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.
Paul Anka’s My Way
POLONIUS (advice to son for travel abroad)
Yet here, Laertes?
Aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail
And you are stayed for.
There, my blessing with thee.
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character.
Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.
Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear 't that th' opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.
Take each man's censure but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy,
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.
Paul Anka’s My Way
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Mountain Top & Persons
Amy Grant's "Mountain Top" song
from Paul Tournier’s The Meaning of Persons
‘I admire your patience’, he tells me, ‘listening to all this, when much of it must seem to you pointless.’
The remark astonishes me. To call it patience is to suppose an effort on my part, whereas the truth is that it is far more interesting to understand one man thoroughly than to examine a hundred superficially. . .
He felt that he was understood. More than that: he felt also that he was understanding himself better. . . We become fully conscious only of what we are able to express to someone else. . .
Psychological theories explain only mechanisms of the mind. Similarly, the study of all the physiological mechanisms of the body can never of itself lead us to a knowledge of the person. . .
Through information I can understand a case; only through communion shall I be able to understand a person. Men expect of us that we should understand them as cases; but they also want to be understood as persons.
There are two routes to be followed in the knowledge of man: one is objective and scientific, the other is subjective and intuitive . . .One proceeds by logical analysis and precise assessment; the other by a total understanding. One is an endless progression; the other is a sudden and complete discovery.
Although the two methods – that of intellectual information and that of spiritual communion – are thus mutually supporting, it is not easy to synthesize them. Our minds do not seem readily able to comprehend man at once as an ensemble of phenomena and as a person. If we concentrate on the phenomena, the person escapes us; if we see the person, the phenomena become blurred.
from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (opening sentence):
Holden Caulfield: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
from Paul Tournier’s The Meaning of Persons
‘I admire your patience’, he tells me, ‘listening to all this, when much of it must seem to you pointless.’
The remark astonishes me. To call it patience is to suppose an effort on my part, whereas the truth is that it is far more interesting to understand one man thoroughly than to examine a hundred superficially. . .
He felt that he was understood. More than that: he felt also that he was understanding himself better. . . We become fully conscious only of what we are able to express to someone else. . .
Psychological theories explain only mechanisms of the mind. Similarly, the study of all the physiological mechanisms of the body can never of itself lead us to a knowledge of the person. . .
Through information I can understand a case; only through communion shall I be able to understand a person. Men expect of us that we should understand them as cases; but they also want to be understood as persons.
There are two routes to be followed in the knowledge of man: one is objective and scientific, the other is subjective and intuitive . . .One proceeds by logical analysis and precise assessment; the other by a total understanding. One is an endless progression; the other is a sudden and complete discovery.
Although the two methods – that of intellectual information and that of spiritual communion – are thus mutually supporting, it is not easy to synthesize them. Our minds do not seem readily able to comprehend man at once as an ensemble of phenomena and as a person. If we concentrate on the phenomena, the person escapes us; if we see the person, the phenomena become blurred.
from J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (opening sentence):
Holden Caulfield: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken
Yogi Berra: "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Yogi Berra: "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Advice
Primum non nocere
(First, do no harm.)
from William Blake's Eternity
He who bends to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise
from Alexander Pope's A Little Learning
A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
from Sir William Osler's "The Master Word in Medicine":
The very first step toward success in any occupation is to become interested in it.
. . .
It is surprising with how little reading a doctor may practice medicine, but it's not surprising how poorly he may do it.
(First, do no harm.)
from William Blake's Eternity
He who bends to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise
from Alexander Pope's A Little Learning
A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
from Sir William Osler's "The Master Word in Medicine":
The very first step toward success in any occupation is to become interested in it.
. . .
It is surprising with how little reading a doctor may practice medicine, but it's not surprising how poorly he may do it.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Band of Brothers
from Shakespeare's Henry V (Act IV, Scene III)
King Henry:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(St. Crispin's Day - Oct 25. Henry V's troops won the Battle of Agincourt, Oct 25, 1415.)
King Henry:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(St. Crispin's Day - Oct 25. Henry V's troops won the Battle of Agincourt, Oct 25, 1415.)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Where We Live and Beyond
from Sam Foss’ “The House by the Side of the Road”
There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran –
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
from Oliver Wendell Holmes’ “The Chambered Nautilus”
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
from William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us”
The World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
from William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”
So live that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me,
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twighlight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of time and place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran –
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.
from Oliver Wendell Holmes’ “The Chambered Nautilus”
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
from William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us”
The World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
from William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”
So live that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan that moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar”
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me,
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twighlight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of time and place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Keep it simple etc.
Occam’s razor
pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate
(multiplicity ought not be posited without necessity)
Keep it simple
carpe diem
(Seize the day)
from Virgil’s Aenid
forsan et haec olim meminisse juabit
(Someday perhaps we’ll remember these things with happiness)
Moriturite salutamus
(We about to die salute you.)
John Milton’s “Sonnet On His Blindness”
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent, which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Master, and present
My true account, lest He, returning, chide:
“Doth God exact day labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask; but Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work, or His own gifts; who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Guardian Angels
Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness." (Gen. 1:26)
So God created human kind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:27)
So God created human kind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen. 1:27)
Three men at Mamre and two angels at
The angel of Yahweh took his stand on the road to bar Baalam’s way (Num.
Then the devil left him and suddenly angels appeared and looked after him (Matt
Jesus answered them, “You understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For at the resurrection men and women do not marry; no, they are like angels.” (Matt
An angel of the Lord came and rolled away the stone and sat on it. The angel spoke to the women, “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would.” (Matt 28:2-7)
Then suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there, and the cell was filled with light. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him. “Get up!” he said, “Hurry!” and the chains fell from his hands. (Acts 12:7)
Life is Gift
After reading John Claypool's Tracks of a Fellow Struggler in 1974, I took the pistol out of the box and broke it to pieces with a hammer. In it's place I put a note, "Regardless of how much I've fucked up, I'm thankful for the life I've been given."
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Take Care
from D.R. Brashear, physics teacher at AHS…
“So much is lost for the want of a little bit more.”
from anonymous. . .
“Every single act of love bears the imprint of God.”
from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam…
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
from original eclectic pole
from John Donne, Meditation XVII
from the Bhagavad-Gita
from the
from Thomas Merton…
from Bill Wallace of
from John Gage, “Populous Solitude”, 1965…
I am alone in the great brotherhood
We are all alone.
Impassioned minds assert their own,
And live for themselves
Each man proudly propounds his thot
But no one listens
We are strangely thrown together
And stand apart.
from John Gage, “When These Are Gone”, 1965….
The crooked verdant valleys
Like the nation in its faith,
The alacritous gurgling brooks,
Like the course of open minds,
The vast expanse of unchecked prairie
Like the soul of man when free
The high flying lark and eagle
Like the thoughts of an honest man
The deep flowing thundering rivers
Like the spirit of a nation,
The tacit meditative meadows,
Like the silent musings of real men
When these are gone
The earth lies void
Like man. . .
from Antoine De Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince. . .
Monday, February 16, 2009
Scars
from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
. . .
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet. . .
---------
---------
from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene 3
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
------------
------------
from Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 -- “Kaddish”
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
. . .
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet. . .
---------
---------
from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene 3
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
------------
------------
from Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 -- “Kaddish”
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Work
from physician Sir William Osler’s essay, “The Master-Word in Medicine” [work]:
“Cultivate system. I say cultivate advisedly, since some of you will find the acquisition of systematic habits very hard. There are minds congenitally systematic; others have a life-long fight against an inherited tendency to diffuseness and carelessness in work.”
“No matter how trifling the matter on hand, do it with a feeling that it demands the best that is in you, and when done look it over with a critical eye, not sparing a strict judgment of yourself.”
“Years ago a sentence in one of Carlyle’s essays made a lasting impression on me: ‘Our duty is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.’ ‘Take no thought for the morrow.’ Let the day’s work suffice; live for it, regardless of what the future has in store…”
“You will have to face the ordeal of every student in this generation who sooner or later tries to mix the waters of science with the oil of faith. You can have a great deal of both if you only keep them separate. The worry comes from the attempt at mixture. As general practioners you will need all the faith you can carry, and while it may not always be of the conventional pattern, when expressed in your lives rather than on your lips, the variety is not a bad one from the standpoint of St. James.”
“A conscientious pursuit of Plato’s ideal perfection may teach you the three great lessons of life:
1. You may learn to consume your own smoke. Things cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations.
2. We are here not to get all we can out of life for ourselves, but to try to make the lives of others happier. The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.
3. The law of the higher life is only fulfilled by love, i.e. charity.”
“You belong to the great army of quiet workers, physicians and priests, sisters and nurses, all over the world, the members of which strive not neither do they cry, nor are their voices heard in the streets, but to them is given the ministry of consolation in sorrow, need, and sickness. Like the ideal wife of whom Plutarch speaks, the best doctor is often the one of whom the public hears the least.”
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Courage and Faith
from John Claypool’s sermon, “The Samaritan” (Luke
“Why was it the Samaritan and not the priest and Levite do you suppose who stopped to minister to the beaten man? There are several answers that could be given to this question. One possibility is that Courage was the differential that separated these three, that one of these, namely the Samaritan, was simply a braver human being than the other two. There’s good evidence in the very context of the passage… It took a measure of bravery to even be on that road in the first place [17 miles from Jerusalem to Jericho] …Like any mountainous road it is circuitous, many turns, lots of caves where it was easy for brigands to hide out…to this day that stretch of road is known as the red or bloody way because so much violence had occurred there. And so, it could be that as these three were making their way along the road each of them were saying to themselves…a person has to be careful when he has to make this journey alone, and the last thing I want to do is to stop or become vulnerable… And so it could well be that the priest and Levite got in touch with their fear, and the Samaritan knew fear but also had something greater than fear, and, therefore, his courage explains why it was he and not the other two who stopped.
And I remind myself that that is no small item in the religious pilgrimage. Paul Tillich taught us years ago that Courage is the virtue that powers all the other virtues. In fact if I don’t have a measure of bravery I’m going to have trouble getting on with any of the significant ventures of life. How can I love the Lord my God; how can I really set about to love the neighbor; or that most frightening of all the challenges: how can I go into the depths of my own being and learn to love all that I might find there. It could be the Samaritan was simply the most courageous.”
from Paul Tillich
“The first duty of love is to listen.”
Friday, February 13, 2009
from Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation
“Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love.”
Albert Schweitzer conclusion to The Quest of the Historical Jesus:
"He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake-side, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: 'Follow thou me!' and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is."
What does the Lord require of you but to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
Thursday, February 12, 2009
"Good News, Bad News"
.
This is an old story that's been around for centuries, but we first heard it at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in a sermon John Claypool preached in November 2001:
The Chinese tell the story of an old man who owned a bony plow horse. One spring afternoon the horse ran away. The old man's friends, trying to console him, said, "We're so sorry about your horse, old man. What a misfortune you've had." But the old man said, "Bad news, good news - who's to say?"
A few days later the horse returned home leading a herd of wild horses. Again the friends came running. Filled with jubilation, they cried, "How wonderful!" But the old man whispered, "Good news, bad news - who's to say?"
Then the next day, when the farmer's son was trying to ride one of the new horses, the young man was thrown to the ground and broke both legs. The friends gasped. The old man stood still and said, "Bad news, good news - who's to say?"
And a short time later when the village went to war and all the young men were drafted to fight, the farmer's son was excused because of two broken legs. Good news. Bad news. Who's to say?
One tries to believe that "in everything that happens God is trying to bring about some good." (Romans 8:28)
It ain't over till it's over. (Yogi Berra)
It's not over until the fat lady sings. (refers to end of Wagner's 14 hr opera Der Ring des Nibelungen)
This is an old story that's been around for centuries, but we first heard it at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in a sermon John Claypool preached in November 2001:
The Chinese tell the story of an old man who owned a bony plow horse. One spring afternoon the horse ran away. The old man's friends, trying to console him, said, "We're so sorry about your horse, old man. What a misfortune you've had." But the old man said, "Bad news, good news - who's to say?"
A few days later the horse returned home leading a herd of wild horses. Again the friends came running. Filled with jubilation, they cried, "How wonderful!" But the old man whispered, "Good news, bad news - who's to say?"
Then the next day, when the farmer's son was trying to ride one of the new horses, the young man was thrown to the ground and broke both legs. The friends gasped. The old man stood still and said, "Bad news, good news - who's to say?"
And a short time later when the village went to war and all the young men were drafted to fight, the farmer's son was excused because of two broken legs. Good news. Bad news. Who's to say?
One tries to believe that "in everything that happens God is trying to bring about some good." (Romans 8:28)
It ain't over till it's over. (Yogi Berra)
It's not over until the fat lady sings. (refers to end of Wagner's 14 hr opera Der Ring des Nibelungen)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Hidden Lives
from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
Thomas Gray
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the Poor.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:-
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault
If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:
But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
"A Noiseless Patient Spider"
Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself.
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them.
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
from a 92 yo woman in West Virginia quoted on NPR:
"If you're destined to hang you won't drown, so let the big cat jump."
from Hamlet (Act I, scene 5, 166-167)
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy
from Julius Ceaser (Act I, scene 2, 140-141)
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Thomas Gray
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the Poor.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th' inevitable hour:-
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault
If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:
But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
"A Noiseless Patient Spider"
Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself.
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them.
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
from a 92 yo woman in West Virginia quoted on NPR:
"If you're destined to hang you won't drown, so let the big cat jump."
from Hamlet (Act I, scene 5, 166-167)
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy
from Julius Ceaser (Act I, scene 2, 140-141)
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Monday – Psalm 23
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside the still waters; he restores my soul.
He leads me in the paths of righteousness…for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil…thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Tuesday - Psalm 121
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
From Mendelssohn’s Elijah: “He Watching Over Israel”
Wednesday - Psalm 27
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
“The Lord is My Light”
Thursday - Psalm 35
Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
False witnesses come forward against me
asking me questions I cannot answer
they cross-examine me, repay my kindness with cruelty,
make my life barren.
We offered 15; they countered with 70.
We went up to 27; they countered with 60.
We went up to 35; they countered with 50.
We said forget it; they got 6500 on Friday.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside the still waters; he restores my soul.
He leads me in the paths of righteousness…for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil…thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Tuesday - Psalm 121
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
From Mendelssohn’s Elijah: “He Watching Over Israel”
Wednesday - Psalm 27
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
“The Lord is My Light”
Thursday - Psalm 35
Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
False witnesses come forward against me
asking me questions I cannot answer
they cross-examine me, repay my kindness with cruelty,
make my life barren.
We offered 15; they countered with 70.
We went up to 27; they countered with 60.
We went up to 35; they countered with 50.
We said forget it; they got 6500 on Friday.
Monday, February 9, 2009
IF
by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream-and not make dreams your master;
If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more-you'll be a man, my son!
from an unknown poet, quoted by Hilda Spalding:
For life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon;
And a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
.......Three Gates.......
from the Arabian, oft quoted by Hilda Spalding
If you are tempted to reveal
A tale to you someone has told
About another, make it pass,
Before you speak, three gates of gold.
These narrow gates: First, "Is it true?"
Then, "Is it needful?" In your mind
Give truthful answer. And the next
Is last and narrowest, "Is it kind?"
And if to reach your lips at last
It passes through these gateways three,
Then you may tell the tale, nor fear
What the result of speech may be.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
DNA
". . . Isn't our DNA the very first text of our lives? These exquisite inherited strands begin our personal story and also partially contain our destinies. Unlucky? Suffer a terrible congenital disease. Lucky? Hit the jackpot with a higher IQ. DNA is where we start, but surely the rest of our story is up to us, written with every decision we make, risk taken or avoided, and with each opportunity we act upon to create ourselves. We inherit the first book of our lives, but we write the rest every day with our character."
from Marge Fox speaking about her art quilt "The Creation" at www.theartquiltassociation.com
"We are here to create, not just survive."
from a random fortune cookie at Double Dragon 2 about 2004
from Marge Fox speaking about her art quilt "The Creation" at www.theartquiltassociation.com
"We are here to create, not just survive."
from a random fortune cookie at Double Dragon 2 about 2004
Saturday, February 7, 2009
from Eclectic Pole
from A Million Little Pieces
James Frey, 2003
The Tao:
Live and let live. Do not judge.
Take it as it comes. Deal with it.
Everything will be okay. pg 180
from What Men Live By
Leo Tolstoy,
[short story about angel God sent to earth to learn three lessons.]
first lesson, What is given to men?
Then I knew that love has been given to men, to dwell in their hearts.
second lesson, What is not given to men? It is not given to men to know their own needs.
third lesson, What men live by:
I learnt that man does not live by care for himself, but by love for others.
God wishes men to live together united, and therefore has revealed to them that they are needful to each other’s happiness. pgs 54-57
from Letters and Papers from Prison
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1953
Later I discovered and am still discovering up to this very moment that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe…..How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world.”
written July 21, 1944.
[On April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis at Flossenbürg, Germany.]
from Sartor Resartus, “Everlasting Yea”
Thomas Carlyle, 1833
‘Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by Action.’ On which ground, too, let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this other precept well to heart, which to me was of invaluable service: ‘Do the Duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a Duty! Thy second Duty will already have become clearer.’
[two quotes from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, 1795]
from Issa:
Oh snail,
Climb Mount Fujii
But slowly, slowly
some quotes from Epictitus:
Difficulties are things that show
what men are.
Whatever you would make habitual, practice it.
And if any is unhappy,
remember that he is for himself;
for God made all men to enjoy felicity and peace.
from Abraham Lincoln:
Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then find the way.
unknown:
One ship sails west, another east, by the selfsame winds that blow.
‘Tis the set of the sail and not the gale that determines the way she’ll go.
Admiral Jacoby:
All Blow, no go.
A man’s desk is like his mind.
Do it now.
from Cell 202 Sing Sing
quoting Captain Pete:
“Everywhere I found men and women searching for something they knew not what, struggling for life and with life. They were chained and shackled to unmeaning traditions. Chains and shackles that mutilated them and narrowed their horizons.
“You will find as I have found that freedom should not be measured by physical standards. Freedom is vision. The man whose mind can reach out beyond self, that man will never feel the pinch of an iron bracelet; walls will crumble before him.”
from Markings
Dag Hammarskjőld
Not to brood over my pettiness with masochistic self disgust, not to take a pride in admitting it – but to recognize it as a threat to my integrity of action the moment I let it out of my sight.
He broke fresh ground – because, and only because, he had the courage to go ahead without asking whether others were following or even understood.
A closed mind is a weakness, and he who approaches persons or painting or poetry without the youthful ambition to learn a new language and so gain access to someone else’s perspective on life, let him beware.
Henri David Thoreau's Walden (especially the Introduction and Conclusion)
James Frey, 2003
The Tao:
Live and let live. Do not judge.
Take it as it comes. Deal with it.
Everything will be okay. pg 180
from What Men Live By
Leo Tolstoy,
[short story about angel God sent to earth to learn three lessons.]
first lesson, What is given to men?
Then I knew that love has been given to men, to dwell in their hearts.
second lesson, What is not given to men? It is not given to men to know their own needs.
third lesson, What men live by:
I learnt that man does not live by care for himself, but by love for others.
God wishes men to live together united, and therefore has revealed to them that they are needful to each other’s happiness. pgs 54-57
from Letters and Papers from Prison
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1953
Later I discovered and am still discovering up to this very moment that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe…..How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world.”
written July 21, 1944.
[On April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis at Flossenbürg, Germany.]
from Sartor Resartus, “Everlasting Yea”
Thomas Carlyle, 1833
‘Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by Action.’ On which ground, too, let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this other precept well to heart, which to me was of invaluable service: ‘Do the Duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a Duty! Thy second Duty will already have become clearer.’
[two quotes from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, 1795]
from Issa:
Oh snail,
Climb Mount Fujii
But slowly, slowly
some quotes from Epictitus:
Difficulties are things that show
what men are.
Whatever you would make habitual, practice it.
And if any is unhappy,
remember that he is for himself;
for God made all men to enjoy felicity and peace.
from Abraham Lincoln:
Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then find the way.
unknown:
One ship sails west, another east, by the selfsame winds that blow.
‘Tis the set of the sail and not the gale that determines the way she’ll go.
Admiral Jacoby:
All Blow, no go.
A man’s desk is like his mind.
Do it now.
from Cell 202 Sing Sing
quoting Captain Pete:
“Everywhere I found men and women searching for something they knew not what, struggling for life and with life. They were chained and shackled to unmeaning traditions. Chains and shackles that mutilated them and narrowed their horizons.
“You will find as I have found that freedom should not be measured by physical standards. Freedom is vision. The man whose mind can reach out beyond self, that man will never feel the pinch of an iron bracelet; walls will crumble before him.”
from Markings
Dag Hammarskjőld
Not to brood over my pettiness with masochistic self disgust, not to take a pride in admitting it – but to recognize it as a threat to my integrity of action the moment I let it out of my sight.
He broke fresh ground – because, and only because, he had the courage to go ahead without asking whether others were following or even understood.
A closed mind is a weakness, and he who approaches persons or painting or poetry without the youthful ambition to learn a new language and so gain access to someone else’s perspective on life, let him beware.
Henri David Thoreau's Walden (especially the Introduction and Conclusion)
from Henri David Thoreau’s Walden
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