Friday, October 7, 2011
new mantra?
People say to write it down is to help it become real. So here we go.
Let it only rain when I am strong. When I am strong, let it rain.
So, to let me be, when I am weak, free of fear or casualties
of life or mind, let me be free, when I am weak.
Let my great struggles not overlap
those I need most, and let me be fully me, when they too need to be free.
And let it only rain,
when I am most strong.
10.02.11
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Umberto Eco said it first
People these days seem to talk a great deal about how things were "then" versus how they are now. Is this comparison one that has been around forever? A strategy of the older to survive continuing struggles, to allow the memory of past blessings & joys to provide hope during difficult times? To allow us to hold on longer?
I was reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco last night, and read this part...
"In the past men were handsome and great (now they are children and dwarfs), but this is merely one of the many facts that demonstrate the disaster of an aging world. The young no longer want to study anything, learning is in decline, the whole world walks on its head, blind men lead others equally blind and cause them to plunge into the abyss, birds leave the nest before they can fly, the jackass plays the lyre, oxen dance. Mary no longer loves the contemplative life and Rachel has a carnal eye. Cato visits brothels, Lucretius becomes a woman. Everything is on the wrong path."
I read this and realized how long ago it was written (over a hundred years) and how everything relates to today as well. I wonder if we are so fearful of life going poorly, that perhaps some of the changes we fight are those we are meant to face. Perhaps only when the world falls into abyss are we able to evolve it into what it desires to be, but for generations, we have fought this fall into hope. All I know is, when I read this, I had more hope. If the world seemed so bleak to Umberto all those decades ago, and life has survived to continue on through today, even though it may seem bleak to me now as well, it will more than likely continue on another hundred years.
Those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it, right?
I was reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco last night, and read this part...
"In the past men were handsome and great (now they are children and dwarfs), but this is merely one of the many facts that demonstrate the disaster of an aging world. The young no longer want to study anything, learning is in decline, the whole world walks on its head, blind men lead others equally blind and cause them to plunge into the abyss, birds leave the nest before they can fly, the jackass plays the lyre, oxen dance. Mary no longer loves the contemplative life and Rachel has a carnal eye. Cato visits brothels, Lucretius becomes a woman. Everything is on the wrong path."
I read this and realized how long ago it was written (over a hundred years) and how everything relates to today as well. I wonder if we are so fearful of life going poorly, that perhaps some of the changes we fight are those we are meant to face. Perhaps only when the world falls into abyss are we able to evolve it into what it desires to be, but for generations, we have fought this fall into hope. All I know is, when I read this, I had more hope. If the world seemed so bleak to Umberto all those decades ago, and life has survived to continue on through today, even though it may seem bleak to me now as well, it will more than likely continue on another hundred years.
Those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it, right?
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