“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” Wendell Berry
I ran into this quote again from one of Berry’s poems and it made me laugh, again. I mean, do I ever really have all the facts? I cobble together a story based on my perception of almost always incomplete facts, tainted as it is by my predilections, then I layer that with an icing of supposition as to the future — all of which leaves me with, well, near fiction and an appreciation for Berry’s words.
I find the poetry of Charles Bukowski the right medicine for when I start to take life too seriously, … or not seriously enough.
the last song – Charles Bukowski
driving the freeway while
listening to the Country and Western boys
sing about a broken heart
and the honkytonk blues,
it seems that things just don’t work out
most of the time
and when they do it will be for a
short time
only.
well, that’s not news.
nothing’s news.
it’s the same old thing in
disguise.
only one thing comes without a
disguise and you only see it
once, or
maybe never.
like getting hit by a freight
train
makes us realize that all our
moaning about long lost girls
in gingham dresses
is not so important
after
all.
Photo taken of the Austin skyline a few years back — likely has some new buildings in it now.
“Having devoted the first half of my life to the dark, I feel obliged to revere any pinpoint of light now.” Mary Karr
Indeed, those “pinpoints of light” are due reverence whenever or however they come.
It occurred to me today that life is like running a race when I don’t know the course, or for that matter, the distance. But then, hell, we’re all in the same race.
As the year, and decade, winds to an end, the significance of time is prominently displayed. Thus, this quote from T. H. Huxley settled in today:
“It is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and end as superstitions.”
Indeed, it occurs to me that as humans we have this strange relationship with change and tradition. That is, we, at some level, crave both. So, on New Year’s Eve we’ll follow a long-standing tradition of ushering out a year (and a decade) while making resolutions about how we will change things going forward.
Which somehow leads me to this question — What “superstitions” are getting swept aside to make way for new truths?
Photo taken on the beach in Galveston
One can have happiness as long as one is not too particular as to the size, shape, or form in which it arrives.
Read yesterday at a church event, from The Layers by Stanley Kunitz: “Though I lack the art to decipher it, no doubt the next chapter in my book of transformation is already written. I am not done with my changes.”
Indeed. I am reminded of this from Richard Bach: “Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.” To (with apologies) merge Kunitz and Bach, I suppose the same can be said for my book of transformation – if I am alive, it ain’t done.
“Peace – It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”
That is a quote on a candleholder I pulled out today while putting a new candle on my desk. It always rings true every time I read it. The best response I have come up with to date is this – “I’m working on it.” It occurred to me today that perhaps the kind of peace we are talking about here is not something you work on so much as you get out of its way and let it happen. Keeping in the spirit of the season (jeez, twenty days away!), it is the kind of peace one gets by stopping the frantic holiday activity and listening, really listening, to “Silent Night” or “O Holy Night” or even “In the Bleak Midwinter.”
It occurs to me... 