Your Own Darkness
Carl Jung wrote, “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” Jung is another one of those people I’ve not let myself explore, but it might be time to change that. The…
Big Pictures
Through the details unique to each story, literature shows us the big pictures in life. When I take in the stacks and stacks of shirts in Jay Gatsby’s closets, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, and the…
Person or Commodity?
When I look back at my writing, I notice common themes, and while in the past, it bothered me, because it seemed like I was unable to move forward or entertain an original thought, I no longer feel that way.…
The Compartmentalization of Attention
Thanks to the attention-span-killing Internet, it becomes harder to pay anything the attention it deserves. This works well for those who exploit it. What was earthshattering news last week can barely be recalled today. We more easily forget and, to…
Please Don’t Get Comfortable
The best part of reading more than one book at any period of time is finding the connections among them. It is a conversation, and like most conversations, paying attention is important, because if you do, you’ll likely find answers…
Freedom of the Humble Soul
I had every intention yesterday of writing about the interesting bits I found in The Gaze of Love by Sister Wendy Beckett, but I managed to get off on a political tangent. Can you imagine? Let’s see if I can…
Almost a Year
The day after Ash Wednesday, I remembered my not terribly solid Lenten tradition of reading The Gaze of Love by Sister Wendy Beckett, so I pulled the book off the shelf and quickly caught up. The subtitle is Meditations on…
Groupthink
Groupthink: A Study in Self Delusion turned out to be rather a different book that what I thought I was in for. I sometimes buy books impetuously, skimming descriptions as quickly as possible, glancing at a review or two, and…
The Words I Choose
Freedom, love, duty, faith: these words have taken up residence in my mind, and they don’t seem likely to hightail it out of town any time soon. Safety, on the other hand, is a word absolutely not welcome in my…
Steps in the Right Direction
A wind is blowing outside my studio. I like the sound and love to see the occasional leaf slowly drift through the chill air to the ground. Stella and Henry often race around the yard at this time of year,…
You Can’t Take this Away
There was a time when I was writing lots of poetry. Then, the motivation waned. It waxes again on occasion, and I thought it would be nice to collect what I have written and what I might write here at…
Peaks and Valleys
At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo says to Sam, “Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years.” My mind continually…
