Stay In Touch -Have I not proven to you that I Am in the saving sinners business? -Jesus
Monday, April 30, 2012
First Known When Lost: "Mad Agility In Compound Deceit"
First Known When Lost: "Mad Agility In Compound Deceit"
Excerpt:
In the country in which I live, we are in the midst of a presidential election campaign. The months between now and the first Tuesday in November lie before us like a yawning abyss. One thing can be stated with absolute certainty and without fear of contradiction: the media will put on a display of "mad agility in compound deceit." (One of my favorite phrases from Saul Bellow. (It is from Mr. Sammler's Planet.) Ten syllables in what may be iambic pentameter. It sounds like something by Shakespeare or Donne. Bellow could have been a poet.)
While at all times protesting their "neutrality." But of course..................
Excerpt:
"Mad Agility In Compound Deceit"
While at all times protesting their "neutrality." But of course..................
Books, Inq. — The Epilogue: Maybe, maybe not …
Books, Inq. — The Epilogue: Maybe, maybe not …
Excerpt:
Perhaps the problem isn’t with MFA programs at all, but with the fact that, for most graduates of MFA programs, it’s the only training in writing they have. They haven’t done what any rookie reporter at any local newspaper has done, which is observed a scene – a city council meeting, a high school football game, a small-plane crash – and then written about it on the front page of a paper that everybody involved in that scene will read the next day. They haven’t had to sift through a complex, shifting set of facts – was that plane crash a result of equipment malfunction or pilot error? – and not only get the story right, but make it compelling to readers, all under deadline as the editor and a row of surly press guys are standing around waiting to fill that last hole on page one. They haven’t, in short, had to write, quickly, under pressure, for an audience, with their livelihood on the line...
...But in the main, today’s younger bloggers don’t have those skills, because shoe-leather reporting isn’t all that useful in the Internet age. Reporting is slow. It’s analog. You call people up and talk to them for half an hour. Or you arrange a time to meet and talk for an hour and a half. It can take all day to report a simple human-interest story.
[This article certainly woke me up this cold, rainy morning! What a flood of memories this paragraph brought up from the depths reminding me that I spent years doing just that.... O! the days of shoe-leather reporting...]
Excerpt:
Perhaps the problem isn’t with MFA programs at all, but with the fact that, for most graduates of MFA programs, it’s the only training in writing they have. They haven’t done what any rookie reporter at any local newspaper has done, which is observed a scene – a city council meeting, a high school football game, a small-plane crash – and then written about it on the front page of a paper that everybody involved in that scene will read the next day. They haven’t had to sift through a complex, shifting set of facts – was that plane crash a result of equipment malfunction or pilot error? – and not only get the story right, but make it compelling to readers, all under deadline as the editor and a row of surly press guys are standing around waiting to fill that last hole on page one. They haven’t, in short, had to write, quickly, under pressure, for an audience, with their livelihood on the line...
...But in the main, today’s younger bloggers don’t have those skills, because shoe-leather reporting isn’t all that useful in the Internet age. Reporting is slow. It’s analog. You call people up and talk to them for half an hour. Or you arrange a time to meet and talk for an hour and a half. It can take all day to report a simple human-interest story.
[This article certainly woke me up this cold, rainy morning! What a flood of memories this paragraph brought up from the depths reminding me that I spent years doing just that.... O! the days of shoe-leather reporting...]
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals Postpartum Depression Battle | Omg Goddess - Yahoo! omg!
Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals Postpartum Depression Battle | Omg Goddess - Yahoo! omg!
Excerpt:
...the Oscar winner impressed us Thursday night when she opened up on national television up about a tough topic, sharing an honest and personal account of her experience with post-partum depression...
Excerpt:
...the Oscar winner impressed us Thursday night when she opened up on national television up about a tough topic, sharing an honest and personal account of her experience with post-partum depression...
Anecdotal Evidence: `The Cicadas' Dense, Unchanging Raga'
Anecdotal Evidence: `The Cicadas' Dense, Unchanging Raga'
Excerpt:
In “The Return” (New Collected Poems, 2009), Charles Tomlinson writes:
Shrill, simmering and continuous.”
................
Excerpt:
In “The Return” (New Collected Poems, 2009), Charles Tomlinson writes:
“Voice-prints of a season that belongs
To the cicadas and the heat, their songShrill, simmering and continuous.”
................
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Jailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons - Yahoo! Finance
Jailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons - Yahoo! Finance
Excerpt
How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn't have to pay it," The Associated Press reports. "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs."
Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.
[In case you didn't receive a true historical education of the U.S.---very common today---most of those who first came to our shores were 'debtors' forced into prison by unjust laws, greedy thieves and crazy leaders. It is unbelievable that we now 'worship' in a terrible frenzy of 'prestige-idol-"belonging" ' idiocy the very monsters we first fled from. And who are the rich? Owners of our idolatrous image-makers: Soros, Hollywood, 'stars' of all kinds [the present-day "saints"], foreign bankers and oil tycoons [not from Texas but Malaysia and Saudi Arabia...et cetera....ad nauseum]
Nothing new under the sun.
BTW: How come we never hear about Benedict XV's [that's the correct number] encyclical on 'usury'?
Excerpt
How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn't have to pay it," The Associated Press reports. "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs."
Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.
[In case you didn't receive a true historical education of the U.S.---very common today---most of those who first came to our shores were 'debtors' forced into prison by unjust laws, greedy thieves and crazy leaders. It is unbelievable that we now 'worship' in a terrible frenzy of 'prestige-idol-"belonging" ' idiocy the very monsters we first fled from. And who are the rich? Owners of our idolatrous image-makers: Soros, Hollywood, 'stars' of all kinds [the present-day "saints"], foreign bankers and oil tycoons [not from Texas but Malaysia and Saudi Arabia...et cetera....ad nauseum]
Nothing new under the sun.
BTW: How come we never hear about Benedict XV's [that's the correct number] encyclical on 'usury'?
Monday, April 23, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Spotlight: Country songwriters will hit CdA Resort in May - Spokesman.com - April 22, 2012
Spotlight: Country songwriters will hit CdA Resort in May - Spokesman.com - April 22, 2012
Excerpt:
Fans of great country songwriting should mark their calendars for Memorial Day weekend. That’s when a host of best-selling songwriters will gather at the Coeur d’Alene Resort for a weekend of stories and music....
...Also...
The schedule:
• Intellectual Property and Copyrights Workshop: 4-6 p.m. May 3, Spokane City Arts Commission, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., Greg Johnson and Artist Trust’s Libby Gerber present a workshop on intellectual property and copyrights. Free.
and much more...
Excerpt:
Fans of great country songwriting should mark their calendars for Memorial Day weekend. That’s when a host of best-selling songwriters will gather at the Coeur d’Alene Resort for a weekend of stories and music....
...Also...
Gathering of artists
Artist Trust will host a series of workshops and events May 4-7.The schedule:
• Intellectual Property and Copyrights Workshop: 4-6 p.m. May 3, Spokane City Arts Commission, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., Greg Johnson and Artist Trust’s Libby Gerber present a workshop on intellectual property and copyrights. Free.
and much more...
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah: Remembering the Victims of the Holocaust Day
This was observed around the world yesterday. And by the 'moment of silence' in Israel.
[We are poor passing facts, warned by that to give each figure in the photograph his living name. ~ Robert Lowell]
[One of those US soldiers there that day: Fr. Denzer, RIP. Pray for us.] The full name of the day commemorating the victims of the Holocaust is "Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah"--literally the "Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism." It is marked on the 27th day in the month of Nisan--a week after the seventh day of Passover, and a week before Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers). ============== 'To REMEMBER is to walk in two worlds.' ~Elie Wiesel
[We are poor passing facts, warned by that to give each figure in the photograph his living name. ~ Robert Lowell]
[One of those US soldiers there that day: Fr. Denzer, RIP. Pray for us.] The full name of the day commemorating the victims of the Holocaust is "Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah"--literally the "Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism." It is marked on the 27th day in the month of Nisan--a week after the seventh day of Passover, and a week before Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers). ============== 'To REMEMBER is to walk in two worlds.' ~Elie Wiesel
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Anecdotal Evidence: `Curiously and Thrillingly Other'
Anecdotal Evidence: `Curiously and Thrillingly Other'
Excerpt:
In “Existing Things,” an essay collected in Fame & Folly (1996), Cynthia Ozick, like Kazin, returns to childhood and recovers an early memory – flecks of mica glinting in the sidewalks of New York City. She writes:
Excerpt:
In “Existing Things,” an essay collected in Fame & Folly (1996), Cynthia Ozick, like Kazin, returns to childhood and recovers an early memory – flecks of mica glinting in the sidewalks of New York City. She writes:
“If you are five years old, loitering in a syrup of sunheat, gazing at the silver-white mica-eyes in the pavement, you will all at once be besieged by a strangeness: the strangeness of understanding, for the very first time, that you are really alive, and that the world is really true; and the strangeness will divide into a river of wonderings.”
..............
Monday, April 16, 2012
When Christ lay dying on the battlefield | CatholicHerald.co.uk
When Christ lay dying on the battlefield | CatholicHerald.co.uk
Excerpt:
Read more..
Excerpt:
Read more..
Nick Dunne visits a humble roadside shrine near the trenches of Passchendaele built to house an extraordinary image of Christ crucified...To the poet and composer Ivor Gurney, Hill 35 must have seemed an insignificant dent in the landscape. For a Gloucestershire man those slight ridges emerging from the flatlands around the Belgian town of Ypres could not compare with the great rolling landscapes he knew and longed for. Yet, as an experienced soldier, Private Gurney knew the importance of holding even just a few feet of ground that was higher than his enemy. Three weeks previously, on August 22 1917, the Germans had been pushed off Hill 35 in bitter fighting. Now, from the vantage point afforded by those extra 35 metres of height, Gurney could see the battlefield unfold in front of him...
...That night, a French cavalry unit rested at the farm before hurrying on towards the battle. After they had gone, Marant found a beautifully carved figure of the crucified Christ that he was sure one of the soldiers, perhaps the artist himself, had left behind in his haste. Marant was moved by the skill and care taken in creating this holy image. Separated from His Cross, Jesus seemed helpless and particularly vulnerable, suffering again as the world turned to war. He had lost both arms and the remaining stumps were flung upwards in despair, like the limbs of a disfigured soldier...
The carving of Christ crucified is now kept safely in the family’s home, but there is a photograph of it in the wayside shrine. Beside the image there is a statue of Our Lady surrounded by polished shell casings from the war. The British soldiers of 1917 called this area “Passion Dale” and it is as if Mary is again standing at the foot of her son’s Cross, sharing the pain of so many who, like Ivor Gurney, experienced suffering beyond the imagination of most of us walking the battlefields today.
...That night, a French cavalry unit rested at the farm before hurrying on towards the battle. After they had gone, Marant found a beautifully carved figure of the crucified Christ that he was sure one of the soldiers, perhaps the artist himself, had left behind in his haste. Marant was moved by the skill and care taken in creating this holy image. Separated from His Cross, Jesus seemed helpless and particularly vulnerable, suffering again as the world turned to war. He had lost both arms and the remaining stumps were flung upwards in despair, like the limbs of a disfigured soldier...
The carving of Christ crucified is now kept safely in the family’s home, but there is a photograph of it in the wayside shrine. Beside the image there is a statue of Our Lady surrounded by polished shell casings from the war. The British soldiers of 1917 called this area “Passion Dale” and it is as if Mary is again standing at the foot of her son’s Cross, sharing the pain of so many who, like Ivor Gurney, experienced suffering beyond the imagination of most of us walking the battlefields today.
Feminists are sissies? « The Catechesis of Caroline
Feminists are sissies? « The Catechesis of Caroline
Excerpt:
They then congratulated themselves on how morally superior they were to this ignorant fundie, encouraged and incited others to leave comments pointing out the error of her ways, and then became downright obsessive, trawling through her blog to see what other thought crimes may have been committed to the blogosphere, venting their vitriolic spleen and bile...
[How wonderful to now have two geniuses I can 'retreat' to for wisdom and sheer joy: ...finally real 'woman-speak'!!!!!!!!!!!!! is coming of age.]
Excerpt:
They then congratulated themselves on how morally superior they were to this ignorant fundie, encouraged and incited others to leave comments pointing out the error of her ways, and then became downright obsessive, trawling through her blog to see what other thought crimes may have been committed to the blogosphere, venting their vitriolic spleen and bile...
[How wonderful to now have two geniuses I can 'retreat' to for wisdom and sheer joy: ...finally real 'woman-speak'!!!!!!!!!!!!! is coming of age.]
Friday, April 13, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Marks in the Margin: "Beautiful Souls"
Marks in the Margin: "Beautiful Souls"
"Would I do it again? Absolutely. Next time, however, I will do it with much more 'gusto'."
Excerpt:
Those who write about moral courage invariably wonder if there is anything that individuals who have acted courageously have in common. Their usual method is to undertake a series of case studies and then try to identify a factor(s) that motivated their actions.
So for example, Eyal Press in describing his recent book Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks and Heading the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times writes:
This is a book about such nonconformists, about the mystery of what impels people to do something risky and transgressive when thrust into a morally compromising situation: stop, say no, resist.
Who among us has not asked ourselves how we would react when placed in a situation that required risking our life when doing so was contrary to the law, group pressure or a strong cultural norm? Whatever prediction is made cannot hope to capture the dilemma that would confront us if we were, in fact, placed such a situation.
None of the individuals Press portrays had given any thought to the matter, to prepare, for example, to act courageously when faced with such a situation.
Paul Gruninger was the police chief of a state in Switzerland along the Austrian border in 1938. It was illegal in Switzerland then to allow Jews fleeing the Nazis to enter the country. In spite of the law and the compliance of other officials, Gruninger put his career at risk to allow Jewish individuals to enter Switzerland. He said,
“Whoever had the opportunity as I had to repeatedly witness the heartbreaking scenes of the people concerned, the screaming and crying of mothers and children, the threats and suicide and attempts to do it, could….ultimately not bear it anymore.”
.....................................
“…that you can have all kinds of theories but if you do not have love in action, those theories and creeds do not mean anything at all.”
"Would I do it again? Absolutely. Next time, however, I will do it with much more 'gusto'."
Excerpt:
Those who write about moral courage invariably wonder if there is anything that individuals who have acted courageously have in common. Their usual method is to undertake a series of case studies and then try to identify a factor(s) that motivated their actions.
So for example, Eyal Press in describing his recent book Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks and Heading the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times writes:
This is a book about such nonconformists, about the mystery of what impels people to do something risky and transgressive when thrust into a morally compromising situation: stop, say no, resist.
Who among us has not asked ourselves how we would react when placed in a situation that required risking our life when doing so was contrary to the law, group pressure or a strong cultural norm? Whatever prediction is made cannot hope to capture the dilemma that would confront us if we were, in fact, placed such a situation.
None of the individuals Press portrays had given any thought to the matter, to prepare, for example, to act courageously when faced with such a situation.
Paul Gruninger was the police chief of a state in Switzerland along the Austrian border in 1938. It was illegal in Switzerland then to allow Jews fleeing the Nazis to enter the country. In spite of the law and the compliance of other officials, Gruninger put his career at risk to allow Jewish individuals to enter Switzerland. He said,
“Whoever had the opportunity as I had to repeatedly witness the heartbreaking scenes of the people concerned, the screaming and crying of mothers and children, the threats and suicide and attempts to do it, could….ultimately not bear it anymore.”
.....................................
“…that you can have all kinds of theories but if you do not have love in action, those theories and creeds do not mean anything at all.”
Anecdotal Evidence: `To Be Happy at Home'
Anecdotal Evidence: `To Be Happy at Home'
Excerpt:
A day earlier, as I locked for the last time the front door of the rental house we occupied for four years, I heard a faint voice saying, “Hey, neighbor!” It was Mrs. Johnson...
Excerpt:
A day earlier, as I locked for the last time the front door of the rental house we occupied for four years, I heard a faint voice saying, “Hey, neighbor!” It was Mrs. Johnson...
Friday, April 6, 2012
Brother of Ohio soldier: 'We are a nation at war' - Yahoo! News
Brother of Ohio soldier: 'We are a nation at war' - Yahoo! News
Excerpt:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The brother of a U.S. soldier who was among three central Ohioans killed in an Afghan suicide bombing says Americans shouldn't forget "we are a nation at war."..
Excerpt:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The brother of a U.S. soldier who was among three central Ohioans killed in an Afghan suicide bombing says Americans shouldn't forget "we are a nation at war."..
Man of Sorrows | Standing on my Head
Man of Sorrows | Standing on my Head
Excerpt:
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!...
Excerpt:
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!...
Sefer Chabibi Deepest Torah: PESACH: BLESSED IS THE YEAST
Sefer Chabibi Deepest Torah: PESACH: BLESSED IS THE YEAST
Excerpt:
We eradicate the yeast of Pesach because we are drawing attention to Am Yisrael's role in the world, on this holiday of our Jewish nation's birth. The people of Israel are like the yeast, vis a vis the nations of the world. Yeast is the catalyst in baking, enabling the food to rise, to become better and greater, to reach far beyond its limited ingredients.
Matzah is called lechem oni, poor man's bread. Indeed, the nations of the world are impoverished without the Jewish people among them, whether literally almong them, or figuratively among them as one nation among all the nations of the world in its land.
How impoverished would the world be without the blessings brought to them by the Jewish nation. Both the arts and the sciences have been enriched by the contributions made by the Jewish nation, whether individually or collectively...
Excerpt:
We eradicate the yeast of Pesach because we are drawing attention to Am Yisrael's role in the world, on this holiday of our Jewish nation's birth. The people of Israel are like the yeast, vis a vis the nations of the world. Yeast is the catalyst in baking, enabling the food to rise, to become better and greater, to reach far beyond its limited ingredients.
Matzah is called lechem oni, poor man's bread. Indeed, the nations of the world are impoverished without the Jewish people among them, whether literally almong them, or figuratively among them as one nation among all the nations of the world in its land.
How impoverished would the world be without the blessings brought to them by the Jewish nation. Both the arts and the sciences have been enriched by the contributions made by the Jewish nation, whether individually or collectively...
Thursday, April 5, 2012
SHIRT OF FLAME: HOLY WEDNESDAY: R.I.P. ANN-KRISTIN
SHIRT OF FLAME: HOLY WEDNESDAY: R.I.P. ANN-KRISTIN
Excerpt:
Two things about her stand out in my mind.
One was that her telling me that her mother had been in a mental institution for most if not all of A-K's life. Along with many other equally horrific circumstances, this had made for a difficult, if not traumatic childhood. The way I remember her telling it, Ann-Kristin had given up trying to make contact with her mother. She had self-pity, anger, and resentment around her mother. And one day she realized (with the help of her own spiritual guides): Call your mother once a week and tell her everything that's going on your life just as you wish she could tell you. Give to her what you wish she could give you herself. Give her the news, tell her the flower you saw on your walk, the triumph at work, the little argument you had with your friend.
And over time, the resentment and self-pity disappeared. What was left was compassion. What was left was love.
.........................................
My Notes/Thoughts:
Besides Caryll Houselander...I think of Elie Wiesel:
Love
Excerpt:
Two things about her stand out in my mind.
One was that her telling me that her mother had been in a mental institution for most if not all of A-K's life. Along with many other equally horrific circumstances, this had made for a difficult, if not traumatic childhood. The way I remember her telling it, Ann-Kristin had given up trying to make contact with her mother. She had self-pity, anger, and resentment around her mother. And one day she realized (with the help of her own spiritual guides): Call your mother once a week and tell her everything that's going on your life just as you wish she could tell you. Give to her what you wish she could give you herself. Give her the news, tell her the flower you saw on your walk, the triumph at work, the little argument you had with your friend.
And over time, the resentment and self-pity disappeared. What was left was compassion. What was left was love.
.........................................
My Notes/Thoughts:
Besides Caryll Houselander...I think of Elie Wiesel:
“…the love of knowledge…love of the Torah is deepening it…the ‘lights’ of the ‘seventh day’ still flickered and beckoned in the depths of my memory. The beginning of the Sabbath. The celebration of its perfect holiness…”
“As I returned from the house of prayer with my father, and when I became older, we both sang:
“Shalom aleichem, malachei ha-sharet malachei ha-shalom”
[Peace be with you, servant angels, angels of peace.]
“The following day, after the morning prayer and the meal, my father made all of us fulfill our charitable duties…Dina organized cultural get-togethers. My mother visited hospitals. As for me, my father used to take me to the edge of the forest to visit the Jewish patients in the insane asylum….Though he was not at all wealthy and worked hard to earn a living, he took an interest in the insane, for according to him, they were more defenseless than the poor.”
“At first he used to leave me outside, in the courtyard or garden, while he went and brought ‘his patients’ sweets and fruits. During the Pesach holiday he gave them matzoh.”
“…once I spoke with one…who said, “Who can rescue me today?”
Doriel digressed and said to the doctor: “There’s also religion, Doctor. By clashing with reason, it can prevent you from living in reality…The rigidity of the laws, the bewitchment of the mystics: these I knew and even liked….You who belong to another world and another time...Love
Love
h/t Eve via Mark Shea
A SWEET KID stands in a snowfall and talks about same-sex attraction and sacrifice for Christ. I like especially the shy little sidelong glances he sneaks toward the crucifix, taking encouragement from the sight of it. Via Mark Shea. Posted by Eve Tushnet
A SWEET KID stands in a snowfall and talks about same-sex attraction and sacrifice for Christ. I like especially the shy little sidelong glances he sneaks toward the crucifix, taking encouragement from the sight of it. Via Mark Shea. Posted by Eve Tushnet
A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: Wojtyla
A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: Wojtyla
Excerpt:
“A loving heart is the truest wisdom,” wrote the English author Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
from SHORE OF SILENCE
Love explained all for me,
all was resolved by love,
to this love I adore
wherever it may be.
I am open space for a placid tide
where no wave roars, clutching at rainbow branches.
Now a soothing wave uncovers light in the deep
and breathes light onto unsilvered leaves.
In such silence I hide,
a leaf released from the wind,
no longer anxious for the days that fall.
They must all fall, I know.
~ Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005), Polish priest, philosopher, playwright, and poet, later to become Pope John Paul II; translation by Jerzy Peterkiewicz
Excerpt:
“A loving heart is the truest wisdom,” wrote the English author Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
from SHORE OF SILENCE
Love explained all for me,
all was resolved by love,
to this love I adore
wherever it may be.
I am open space for a placid tide
where no wave roars, clutching at rainbow branches.
Now a soothing wave uncovers light in the deep
and breathes light onto unsilvered leaves.
In such silence I hide,
a leaf released from the wind,
no longer anxious for the days that fall.
They must all fall, I know.
~ Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005), Polish priest, philosopher, playwright, and poet, later to become Pope John Paul II; translation by Jerzy Peterkiewicz
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
The American Spectator : The Mystery of Eric Hoffer
The American Spectator : The Mystery of Eric Hoffer
Excerpt:
...But we know very little about his life before the mid-1930s. That is where the mystery comes in. We know that he moved to San Francisco soon after Pearl Harbor and rented a room in a low-rent district. There he wrote The True Believer, using a plank for a desk. Before that he was a migrant worker in California's Central Valley—stoop labor picking fruit and vegetables.
In 1934 he showed up at a federal homeless shelter in El Centro, California, close to the Mexican border. A trucker drove him there from San Diego, where he was so hungry that he ate cabbage "cow style" at a wholesale food depot. Where was he before San Diego?...
Excerpt:
...But we know very little about his life before the mid-1930s. That is where the mystery comes in. We know that he moved to San Francisco soon after Pearl Harbor and rented a room in a low-rent district. There he wrote The True Believer, using a plank for a desk. Before that he was a migrant worker in California's Central Valley—stoop labor picking fruit and vegetables.
In 1934 he showed up at a federal homeless shelter in El Centro, California, close to the Mexican border. A trucker drove him there from San Diego, where he was so hungry that he ate cabbage "cow style" at a wholesale food depot. Where was he before San Diego?...
Education and Unbelief: the Santorum Debate | The Jesuit Post
Education and Unbelief: the Santorum Debate | The Jesuit Post
Excerpt:
I’d be angry too if I had shelled out nearly $200K for my son or daughter to enjoy four years on some neatly manicured campus only to return and smirk when the family said grace before meals.
Excerpt:
I’d be angry too if I had shelled out nearly $200K for my son or daughter to enjoy four years on some neatly manicured campus only to return and smirk when the family said grace before meals.
Monday, April 2, 2012
David Koker’s Extraordinary Holocaust Concentration-Camp Diary Gets Its First English Translation – Tablet Magazine
David Koker’s Extraordinary Holocaust Concentration-Camp Diary Gets Its First English Translation – Tablet Magazine
Excerpt:
David Koker’s fate was in many ways no different from that of the nearly 6 million other Jews who died in the Holocaust. The eldest son of an Amsterdam jeweler, he was arrested by Dutch police in February 1943 and transported to Vught, a concentration camp built by the Nazis in the southern Netherlands. After being shuffled between other camps, he died on the way to Dachau in early 1945, where he was buried in a mass grave at the age of 23.
Before he died, however, Koker authored what may be the most extraordinary diary ever written inside a concentration camp....
Excerpt:
David Koker’s fate was in many ways no different from that of the nearly 6 million other Jews who died in the Holocaust. The eldest son of an Amsterdam jeweler, he was arrested by Dutch police in February 1943 and transported to Vught, a concentration camp built by the Nazis in the southern Netherlands. After being shuffled between other camps, he died on the way to Dachau in early 1945, where he was buried in a mass grave at the age of 23.
Before he died, however, Koker authored what may be the most extraordinary diary ever written inside a concentration camp....
The Art Of The Notebook – From Eric Hoffer
Eric Hoffer was one of the great thinkers of the 20th century. A simple longshoreman from San Francisco, Hoffer wrote several books, the most famous being “The True Believer.” He was an intellectual who was mostly self-educated. There is a treasure trove of letters and journals available for study at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. However, only a tiny portion of his jottings have been made available for publication to the public. The Atlantic magazine got a glimpse back in 2005 (a must-read called The Art Of The Notebook).
To give you an idea of just how much is at Stanford, the register of the Eric Hoffer papers describes the collection as, “142 ms. boxes, 3 cu. ft. boxes, 10 oversize boxes, 7 card file boxes…speeches and writings, correspondence, reports, minutes, memoranda, printed matter, and audiovisual material.” In other words: Hoffer Heaven... on The Art Of The Notebook
Resource Link
To give you an idea of just how much is at Stanford, the register of the Eric Hoffer papers describes the collection as, “142 ms. boxes, 3 cu. ft. boxes, 10 oversize boxes, 7 card file boxes…speeches and writings, correspondence, reports, minutes, memoranda, printed matter, and audiovisual material.” In other words: Hoffer Heaven... on The Art Of The Notebook
Resource Link
The True Believer Revisited
The True Believer Revisited
Tim Madigan on September 11th and a longshoreman who understood the psychology of mass movements.After the initial horrified reaction I experienced on September 11th, my first question was: How could the terrorists have sacrificed their own lives, and taken the lives of thousands of others, as well as causing such colossal destruction? What could lead them to justify in their own minds committing mass atrocities? This goes far beyond a debate over religious beliefs, to the very heart of human nature: what allows certain people to override any sense of community with their fellow human beings, and willfully cause death and destruction for the sake of a higher cause?
I was reminded of a book I hadn’t read in over fifteen years, and its observations on the rise of mass movements and the leaders of them, who called upon their followers to annihilate all who differed with their worldviews. The work, entitled The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements was written by Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), a very unconventional man and a freethinker...The message that self-sacrifice is needed for the good of a cause can often justify the most heinous of endeavors, and followers are treated as interchangeable cogs in a machine rather than as flesh-and-blood humans. Abstractions and atrocities often go hand-in-hand.
Hoffer is very perceptive in his criticisms, and much of what he has to say is relevant to the present situation. For instance, he points out that we often imitate what we hate. "Every mass movement", he writes, "shapes itself after its own specific demon." And it can then become the very demon it denounces. Christianity in the Middle Ages became so obsessed with devils and witchcraft that it justified mass slaughter and the very sorts of atrocities one would normally attribute to satanic forces. The Jacobins who overthrew the French Monarchy because of its tyranny ended up becoming far greater tyrants themselves, and unleashed The Great Terror upon the populace. The Bolsheviks in Russia denounced capitalism yet amassed a monopoly, and Lenin took over the Czar’s secret police apparatus without a moment’s hesitation.
This reminds me of the paradoxical reality that contemporary religious fundamentalist movements, while claiming to be bringing back an idyllic past, nonetheless utilize the most up-to-date technologies to spread their messages. The Ayatollah Khomeini, for example, used tape recordings of his sermons to keep his Iranian followers informed of his views during his long exile in France. And the September 11th terrorists not only learned to fly sophisticated aircrafts, they no doubt used the internet, cell phones and other modern means of communication to plan their deeds and keep their conspiracy a secret.
Hoffer also offers some insight into why the September 11th terrorists committed such horrific acts. "All the true believers of our time", he wrote in 1951, "communist, nazi, fascist … declaim volubly about the decadence of the West." The weakness of the West, and its moral decay, were frequent themes of Osama Bin Laden’s recent video sermons. Ironically, views not dissimilar were expressed by the Reverends Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson just days after the bombings, when the former stated that secularism, homosexuality, abortion and feminism had weakened the moral fiber of the nation and made it vulnerable to attack, as well as to God’s wrath...
True Believers of all kinds share certain characteristics, including contempt for those who don’t have a holy cause themselves, and respect for fellow fanatics. Hitler and Stalin, for instance, each admired the techniques the other had used to gain and maintain absolute power, and both expressed contempt for the democratic leaders Churchill and Roosevelt. Most of all, Hoffer writes, "A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrines and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of an individual existence." The less control people feel they have over their lives, the more attractive the message of mass movements will be.
How then does one combat True Believers? Can one make a love of democracy and the advocacy of individualism a holy cause itself? "Though hatred is a convenient instrument for mobilizing a community for defense," Hoffer warns, "it does not, in the long run, come cheap. We pay for it by losing all or many of the values we have set out to defend." The best way to fight is to encourage individualism, contrary thinking and a disinclination to follow blindly the teachings of any leaders, no matter how seemingly benign.
........Hoffer’s writings still have much to teach us in the uncertain times ahead. © Dr Timothy J. Madigan 2001 Posted at Philosophy Now
Tim Madigan is Editorial Director of the University of Rochester Press and Vice President of the Bertrand Russell Society.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)