The Greatest Victory

For all that we speak

as a culture and a people,

of victory and defeat,

of good and evil,

of hero and coward, 

it is none of it quite true.

The truth is that the greatest

victory is to endure with grace

and humor, to stay in the game,

to achieve humility.

- Brian Doyle, 

One Long River of Song:

Notes on Wonder

(tip of the hat to Brendan Leonard's most recent post on his always excellent website)

The Cure

The cure for 
anything 

is salt water: 

sweat, 

tears 

or the sea.

 - Isak Dinesen

Sacred Rite of America

American life is
based on a reassurance

that we like one another
but
won’t violate one another’s

privacies.

This makes it a
land of
small
talk.

Two people greet each other
happily, with friendliness,

but might know each other
for years before
venturing
basic questions about
each other’s
backgrounds.

In the East, there's
intimacy
without friendship;

in the West, there's
friendship
without intimacy.

Why is it so many Americans
so value friendliness
with commerce?

Perhaps the exchanging of cash is the
sacred rite
of American capitalism -
of American life.

As a newly minted American,
I feel oddly depressed on a day
when I don't spend money,

for it is my main form of
social interaction -

as it is for millions of other Americans
who live alone, or away
from family.

- Karan Mahajan
  [arranged quote]

Farewell Robert Pirsig

The truth knocks on the door 
and you say, 

“Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” 

and so it goes away. 
Puzzling.

 – Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Chapter 1

The only Zen you 
find 
on the tops of 
mountains 

is the Zen you 
bring 
up there.

 – Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Chapter 20

Running

In the beginning

yes, death
or pausing
is a question.

Now
each step
tells
of the work I've 
done
or
work I need to 
do.

Of course,
the action itself,
repetitive,

is both
liberating and
cleansing.

- Daniel Nelson
(arranged quote)

The Heart of Solitude

When you inhabit

your solitude

fully

you will find that at its heart

there is neither

loneliness

nor emptiness

but intimacy

and

shelter.

There is a lantern

in the soul,

which makes your solitude

luminous.

- John O’Donohue

(arranged quote)

The Devil is in the Details

Books being written

Are strewn with pitfalls

For those who write them

A tendency to sermonize

A veering into allegory

A lack of plausibility.

If one creates an imaginary garden,

The toads in it should be real.

Only tell of events which have already happened

In Joyce's "nightmare" of history

Only describe technology

Already available.

No made-up gizmos

No made-up laws

No made-up atrocities.

God is in the details,

They say.

So is the

Devil.

Margaret Atwood

(arranged quote,

derived from her NYT article,

on "What the Handmaids Tale Means")

Nature Teaches Us How to Be

The scenery, when it is 

truly seen, reacts on the life 
of the seer, 

how to live, 

how to get the most 

of life, 

how to extract its honey 
from the 

flower of the world.  

Nature spontaneously keeps us well. 

Do not resist her!

~ Henry David Thoreau
(arranged quote)