The “don't know” mind . . .
It's a Satyr's day . . . and a preview of Winter is settling into Northeastern Okieland with Northerlies, rain, and falling temps. This morning there were a couple of yesterday’s notes:
Yesterday in 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain on his first of four trans-Atlantic voyages. His first land-fall in the Americas was in what is now Cuba. If any one “discovered” anything on those voyages, it was likely the indigenous peoples who discovered Columbus and his crew on their beaches.
Also yesterday was the birth annivesary of Sylvia Plath. The poet was born in 1932 Boston.
In the mailbox this morning:
. . . the enormous scowl of the presidefendant vanishes like a cloud in the sky. – Garrison Keillor
No one can ever explain to us how to have an experience. If they could, we would all be enlightened by now. Our task as practitioners is to bring the teachings [from Buddhism or whatever your tradtion] to life in a personal way. No one can tell us how to do it. – Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel
I don’t know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing. – Suzuki Roshi
Wandering the streets of bewilderville . . .
In this Thor's day mailbox . . .
The first canal in the United States to connect western waterways with the Atlantic Ocean – 363 mile long Erie Canal – opened to traffic 198 years ago today.
America's first jet-liner, the Boeing 707, went into service on today's date in 1958 on a PanAm flight from New York to Paris.
And in 1970, Muhammad Ali returned to the ring after a three years absence due to his refusal to be inducted into miltary service during the Vietnam War.
I've lost count of the number of times, during my tenure in graduate school, that I heard the words “James, we aren't here to re-invent the wheel.” Sometimes, I caught the thought “why not?” before it slipped out to embarrass the room. Over years of study my critical/evaluative perspectives toward science, logic, and received knowledge expanded to embrace ever wider views – a background distant squeaking always accompaning my inquiries. A recent article by Jasmine Qureshi – put much of this into perspective. It was published in the online journal Radicle under the challenging title “Unlearning our bias: Anthropocentrism in nature and ecology.” Heads-up: it's a long peace, but IMO a worthy read.
When the universe calls – pick up – it might be the patron saint of unbelonging . . . or a poet on TED.
Where the wings attach . . .
Today is Odin's day . . . the mailbox is soggy from the rains, which have not dampened the arts' spirits.
[T]he pressure of the market [has] somehow made the act of endorsement a necessary part of the marketing of art. – Kwame Dawes
The American Political Sestina
A daughter asks her mother if humanitarian is the same thing as volunteer.
… Why am I the one eating the snack, safe because of where I was born, (on American
soil) while the girl on the radio is running from bombs?
The Marginalian was born this week in 2006, an act of love and sharing by Maria Popova. Celebrating the online journal, Maria posted seventeen learnings upon it's seventeenth birthday.
“For all mankind’ won’t cut it any longer; it is time to mothball the inherited rhetoric of the first space age, and to look honestly at the reasons human spaceflight is being pursued and at the ethical issues raised by both the current practices and the potential future goals. = Philip Ball See also:
Shoulder-blades are where the wings attach . . . if you didn't know, now you do.
Seeing for a Moment
I thought I was growing wings.
… Eschatology is a word I learned
as a child: the study of Last Things
… nevertheless
I see for a [mirrored] moment
that's not it: it is
the First Things.
Word after word
floats through the glass.
Towards me.
– by Denise Levertov, from Oblique Prayers. New Directions. 1984