Deep experience is never peaceful.
Henry James
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Hello Bruce
********************
Watchman, tell us of the night.
---------------------------
Weeping may endure for a night
But joy cometh in the morning.
The difficulty with this poem by Mrs. M. M. Weinland is that it doesn't tell how long the night may be. This has been a period of darkness for me, particularly the last 6 months. I look forward to finding that green and grassy meadow where I can rest in the sunshine and drink from the brook of joy. I refuse to accept the idea suggested by Sophocles that one reaches a point in life where joy is no longer a possibility.
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I like trains. I prefer to travel by rail than by any other means. Although I am an excellent driver, rarely had an accident and never a serious one, the highway means other drivers and their irrational ways. And, although air travel is very fast by comparison, a train will never leave you sitting on a runway for 8 hours unable to get off or take off. And, if there's trouble, it won't land on some super highway, in a farmer's corn field or turn back to the wrong airport. And it won't lose your luggage. On a train your back pack is under your feet or in the rack above you.
In News York City, as with many cities, the best way to travel is by rail. The subway, as its name implies, is mostly underground, which means frequent long dark tunnels. But unlike any other form of transportation one can be sure that the train will reach its next destination. It has no choice, the rails ensure that.
When traveling through the tunnel you are unaware of how long it is. If you are lucky enough to be in the first car and can stand looking out the front window you are staring into the long dark tunnel until you finally see faint lights of the next station in the distance that gradually grow brighter and fill all the space. I am looking forward to seeing those lights.
I can also travel to New York City by rail on New Jersey Transit or Amtrak. When approaching the city the train goes underground to traverse the Hudson River thus making for another long dark tunnel. One day while sitting on that train a woman got on with a young girl. The girl spent the entire time staring out the window at the towns, stations, fields and wet lands as we passed them. She didn't say a word until we got to the tunnel under the river, Then after a while she said "When are we gonna come outta this creepy tunnel?"
What wisdom!! I keep asking myself the same question. When am I going to stop rumbling and shaking through my creepy tunnel? When am I going to see the lights up ahead telling me that I am approaching my destination? When am I going to reach the green, grassy meadow and sip the waters of the joy that cometh in the morning?
Joy. I hear it in the music of Bach, in the words of Shakespeare, in the calling of the few birds that live around here. I believe that joy, happiness, goodness exist, they are all already there waiting for us to get through the creepy tunnels of our lives. How long are the tunnels? No man knoweth.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
***********************
Showing posts with label Henry James. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Henry James. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Loose Ends
Experience is never limited, and it is never complete.
Henry James
********************
Life is unfinished business. I used to be one who liked to have things tidy up into nice neat bundles. Experiences I wanted curled up into simple rules for living. I wished to draw the line at what was useful to me and easily understood. I wanted life in a box, gift wrapped with a pretty ribbon around it. Then one day I saw the light.
It is curiously comforting to me to know that there is always something to do, something more to learn and something more to be made out of all the experiences I've had. People I've known for a long time intrigue me by occasionally revealing new facets of themselves. It takes me a long time to read a book because I keep going back over it to find the things that have a new meaning for me. It's the same with the music I find the most interesting and the poetry.
The corner one must be careful of is categorizing. While categories are useful for science and other things, when it comes to people it's a useless endeavor. I don't categorize myself and I don't want anyone else to do it. I call myself a vagabond which implies that I don't fit into any particular mold. Neither does my life. People, things and experiences can be identified without drawing lines around them.
People are sometimes surprised, shocked, appalled when they meet me. I am surprised on the rare occasions when I meet myself. Will I ever understand myself? I doubt it.
"Discover" is a better use of one's mind than "categorize" in my opinion. There are always new ways of doing things, new roads to find, new purposes to investigate, new experiences to enjoy, new facets of ourselves to uncover. As it says in my profile, no rituals, no rules, no summations. I prefer it that way.
DB
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Henry James
********************
Life is unfinished business. I used to be one who liked to have things tidy up into nice neat bundles. Experiences I wanted curled up into simple rules for living. I wished to draw the line at what was useful to me and easily understood. I wanted life in a box, gift wrapped with a pretty ribbon around it. Then one day I saw the light.
It is curiously comforting to me to know that there is always something to do, something more to learn and something more to be made out of all the experiences I've had. People I've known for a long time intrigue me by occasionally revealing new facets of themselves. It takes me a long time to read a book because I keep going back over it to find the things that have a new meaning for me. It's the same with the music I find the most interesting and the poetry.
The corner one must be careful of is categorizing. While categories are useful for science and other things, when it comes to people it's a useless endeavor. I don't categorize myself and I don't want anyone else to do it. I call myself a vagabond which implies that I don't fit into any particular mold. Neither does my life. People, things and experiences can be identified without drawing lines around them.
People are sometimes surprised, shocked, appalled when they meet me. I am surprised on the rare occasions when I meet myself. Will I ever understand myself? I doubt it.
"Discover" is a better use of one's mind than "categorize" in my opinion. There are always new ways of doing things, new roads to find, new purposes to investigate, new experiences to enjoy, new facets of ourselves to uncover. As it says in my profile, no rituals, no rules, no summations. I prefer it that way.
DB
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Saturday, June 6, 2009
Jotting Jobs 6/06/09
We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have.
Henry James
************
A hearty good weekend to you.
------------------
Never call anyone a dope. We are all dopes, when you get right down to it. What I know can barely get me to the post office and back. What I don't know can get me to the edge of the universe and back. No matter how much I learn I am still in the dark about most things. Is that a good reason to stop trying to learn things? Of course not.
When I retired 8 years ago I naturally was urged to do what I had looked forward to doing, full time reading of the topics that interest me, which includes almost everything. I became and am a voracious reader of books, magazines, newspapers, cereal boxes, can and bottle labels, matchbooks, etc. It has led me into some surprising discoveries, some of which show up in my journal, from time to time.
Since I started reading my eyesight has dimmed a bit. Sometimes I have to read with a magnifying glass, so reading is slow going. But, one of these days, ONE OF THESE DAYS, I'll be able to get some reading glasses and then, Watch out !
During my working life I felt I was in the dark most of the time. I think any thing is on the job training no matter how well prepared you are when you go into it, whether it's rocket science or motherhood. Acting was much of a mystery to me all the years I did it. Along the way I noticed that those for whom it was not a mystery were not very good at it.
The common thread throughput my career, as it is with any important enterprise, was the act of giving. I had a talent, which is the word used to differentiate the performer from all the other people involved in theatre or film: such as "Who's the talent on this one?" But one does not get by on talent alone, at least not for long. After "talent" comes the hard work, and that's where the joy of giving comes in. I don't think there is an artist alive who doesn't feel that his talent and ability is a gift and that the work to turn that into something beautiful and meaningful for other people is his gift to life and to the world.
It's a strange thing in life that we don't seem to get as much as we give. We put out 100 per cent and we get back 50 (if we're lucky). And while it's true that some people seem to get back 200 after giving out 20, that's an exception.
There's an old saying in show business "Give me a bare board and a passion." In other words give me a place to stand up and something that moves my heart and my mind and I will entertain you. Al Jolson used to stop people on the street blow a tone on his pitch pipe and sing for them. If a painter has no canvas, paints or brushes he can make a beautiful picture with a jar of ink and a stick, if he's really an artist. I studied drawing with a teacher who actually made us do that, on a hunk of shelf paper.
Every time we recite a poem, sing a song or draw a picture we get one step closer to the edge of the universe. And it doesn't matter what your occupation is, if it's a giving thing you're on the same journey. As the old song puts it, "It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it."
DB - Vagabond Journeys
___________________
Let your light shine. Please.
*******************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
Okay. Here you go.
Without cheating (i. e. Googling), how many of the following can you identify with their full titles? Warning, they get progressively more difficult. The correct answers and winners, if any (heh, heh, malignant chuckle), will appear after 9 p. m. EST on Sunday. So get busy. No cheating.
1. PIN
2. NASA
3. CORE
4. FAA
5. ASCAP
6. AFL-CIO
7. AGVA
8. LASER
9. EDGAR
10. CARD
1 winner so far
Good luck. You'll need it.
Henry James
************
A hearty good weekend to you.
------------------
Never call anyone a dope. We are all dopes, when you get right down to it. What I know can barely get me to the post office and back. What I don't know can get me to the edge of the universe and back. No matter how much I learn I am still in the dark about most things. Is that a good reason to stop trying to learn things? Of course not.
When I retired 8 years ago I naturally was urged to do what I had looked forward to doing, full time reading of the topics that interest me, which includes almost everything. I became and am a voracious reader of books, magazines, newspapers, cereal boxes, can and bottle labels, matchbooks, etc. It has led me into some surprising discoveries, some of which show up in my journal, from time to time.
Since I started reading my eyesight has dimmed a bit. Sometimes I have to read with a magnifying glass, so reading is slow going. But, one of these days, ONE OF THESE DAYS, I'll be able to get some reading glasses and then, Watch out !
During my working life I felt I was in the dark most of the time. I think any thing is on the job training no matter how well prepared you are when you go into it, whether it's rocket science or motherhood. Acting was much of a mystery to me all the years I did it. Along the way I noticed that those for whom it was not a mystery were not very good at it.
The common thread throughput my career, as it is with any important enterprise, was the act of giving. I had a talent, which is the word used to differentiate the performer from all the other people involved in theatre or film: such as "Who's the talent on this one?" But one does not get by on talent alone, at least not for long. After "talent" comes the hard work, and that's where the joy of giving comes in. I don't think there is an artist alive who doesn't feel that his talent and ability is a gift and that the work to turn that into something beautiful and meaningful for other people is his gift to life and to the world.
It's a strange thing in life that we don't seem to get as much as we give. We put out 100 per cent and we get back 50 (if we're lucky). And while it's true that some people seem to get back 200 after giving out 20, that's an exception.
There's an old saying in show business "Give me a bare board and a passion." In other words give me a place to stand up and something that moves my heart and my mind and I will entertain you. Al Jolson used to stop people on the street blow a tone on his pitch pipe and sing for them. If a painter has no canvas, paints or brushes he can make a beautiful picture with a jar of ink and a stick, if he's really an artist. I studied drawing with a teacher who actually made us do that, on a hunk of shelf paper.
Every time we recite a poem, sing a song or draw a picture we get one step closer to the edge of the universe. And it doesn't matter what your occupation is, if it's a giving thing you're on the same journey. As the old song puts it, "It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it."
DB - Vagabond Journeys
___________________
Let your light shine. Please.
*******************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
Okay. Here you go.
Without cheating (i. e. Googling), how many of the following can you identify with their full titles? Warning, they get progressively more difficult. The correct answers and winners, if any (heh, heh, malignant chuckle), will appear after 9 p. m. EST on Sunday. So get busy. No cheating.
1. PIN
2. NASA
3. CORE
4. FAA
5. ASCAP
6. AFL-CIO
7. AGVA
8. LASER
9. EDGAR
10. CARD
1 winner so far
Good luck. You'll need it.
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