There is that which you come to know only after forgetting all that you thought you knew.
J. Philip Thomas
************************
Hello Bruce
***********************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
There's a mid day in the night.
--------------------------
I have a friend who is fast approaching her 50th birthday. I don't know why that is such an austere idea. It is just another day, another year. Why does the number 50 take on such weight in people's minds? Is it because when people reach the age of 50 they must stop considering themselves young? That's nonsense. That's one of the things I found out when the big 50 happened to me. At about that time I met a friend on the street in New York. She was a young woman with whom I had worked. When she learned I was turning 50 she said that I wasn't old and that in fact she was engaged to marry a man about the same age as me. She said she likes older men. That made my day.
Here's another thing I learned. I learned that the only thing I really knew was that I really didn't know very much. All through the first 40 years or so I was sure that by the age of 50 I would know the important things of life. But I found myself still bearing an often juvenile sense of myself and others. I thought "Here I've lived half a century where is all this wisdom I'm supposed to have?" That's when I began to start, to attempt, to hope, to try to get educated. It's been a slow but interesting process since then, and it's still going on.
Another thing I learned, setting aside the arrogance of the young which I will reserve for a different discussion, was that other men and women approximately my age were probably no smarter than I was. And that certainly proved to be true on many levels. The older people who had intimidated me while growing up really did not deserve my awe and fearfulness, which made me think back upon many of the teachers I had.
From the age of 50 on I also began to listen to other people instead of just listening to myself. In other words, I began to develop a higher sense of social contact. I grew less judgmental and more open to the ideas of people I would normally have argued with. I learned that it doesn't make any sense to be an absolutist about anything. as far as human life and experience is concerned.
I then also began to learn a lot about myself. "Know thyself." Knowing thyself is a difficult scholarship. It requires some fact facing and some face facing. To trade in middle age for senior citizenship may seem at first thought to be a frightening prospect, but if successfully done there is a crown to win and wear. Those who wear the crown are more valuable to themselves and the world than those who haven't won it yet.
Now I look forward in a couple of years to the next mountain ledge to wave my flag from. Another day, another year, another birthday. My 75th. And I look forward with joy and anticipation to all the things I will know then that I don't know now.
So to my friend who is about to turn 50 I say "Welcome to a wider world."
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*********************
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
The Great Way
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
Charles deGaulle
**********************
Hello Linda
**********************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
The night is hard to see.
---------------------------------"
The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see."
Those who are given the opportunity and freedom to follow a line of study as far as it can take them are blessed with the possibility of discovering areas of unrevealed knowledge and understanding, places no one has ever encountered before, where no one has ever been. Mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, those practicing on the esoteric edges of science, anthropologists, architects, composers of music and, yes, also poets, when engaged to their utmost, may reach the end of the traveled path, step into an unknown territory of discovery, put down a marker for the future and try to describe what they find.
I don't know much about science, but I know something about art. Every time I see "The Piano Lesson" by Matisse I am taken gently by the hand and led into a world of painting I know next to nothing about. That is even more true of Van Gogh's "Starry Night."
I have heard Beethoven's "Grosse Fugue" for string quartet many times and it is still a mystery. What was it that Beethoven saw in his deafness and what was he trying to tell us about it? In what far off land was Schoenberg when he composed "Verklarte Nacht"?
On what obscure mountain top was Shakespeare when he wrote "The mightiest space in fortune nature brings to join like likes and kiss like native things."? And what was he saying when he wrote to lead us there "Impossible be strange attempts to those who weight their pains in sense and do suppose what hath been cannot be." ?
Do not make the mistake of thinking that life hasn't equipped you with the right and obligation to venture into your own sacred areas of discovery. There is no way of knowing how far the path leads or how important it will be to others of what you find there. But it's your adventure to have and it's your discovery to make, and if you don't make it who will?
The air is thin and hard to breathe, the way is treacherous and the terrain frustratingly difficult to describe but though we may be standing on the shoulders of the great ones who went before us the experience of our own genius can only be won by moving off of the shoulders and placing a foot carefully but steadily down onto a step we cannot see.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
Charles deGaulle
**********************
Hello Linda
**********************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
The night is hard to see.
---------------------------------"
The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see."
Those who are given the opportunity and freedom to follow a line of study as far as it can take them are blessed with the possibility of discovering areas of unrevealed knowledge and understanding, places no one has ever encountered before, where no one has ever been. Mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, those practicing on the esoteric edges of science, anthropologists, architects, composers of music and, yes, also poets, when engaged to their utmost, may reach the end of the traveled path, step into an unknown territory of discovery, put down a marker for the future and try to describe what they find.
I don't know much about science, but I know something about art. Every time I see "The Piano Lesson" by Matisse I am taken gently by the hand and led into a world of painting I know next to nothing about. That is even more true of Van Gogh's "Starry Night."
I have heard Beethoven's "Grosse Fugue" for string quartet many times and it is still a mystery. What was it that Beethoven saw in his deafness and what was he trying to tell us about it? In what far off land was Schoenberg when he composed "Verklarte Nacht"?
On what obscure mountain top was Shakespeare when he wrote "The mightiest space in fortune nature brings to join like likes and kiss like native things."? And what was he saying when he wrote to lead us there "Impossible be strange attempts to those who weight their pains in sense and do suppose what hath been cannot be." ?
Do not make the mistake of thinking that life hasn't equipped you with the right and obligation to venture into your own sacred areas of discovery. There is no way of knowing how far the path leads or how important it will be to others of what you find there. But it's your adventure to have and it's your discovery to make, and if you don't make it who will?
The air is thin and hard to breathe, the way is treacherous and the terrain frustratingly difficult to describe but though we may be standing on the shoulders of the great ones who went before us the experience of our own genius can only be won by moving off of the shoulders and placing a foot carefully but steadily down onto a step we cannot see.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Guidance
How could I bear to be human if humans were not also writers and riddle solvers and redeemers of chance.
Friedrich Nietzsche
**********************
Hello Ernie
Hello Jubail
Hello Doha
Hello Ile-de-France
Hello Istanbul
Hello Herdon
Hello Kalamazoo
Hello Rochester
(Just a few of the 13 who aren't watching the Olympics all the time and took the trouble to check in with the Vagabond.)
****************************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Who's watching the day?
*******************************
I enjoy the Olympic sports, but I'm most interested in the track and field events. The first Olympic mete back in ancient Greece was a 200 meter foot race. These days runners compete in the 100 meter and 500 meter races and longer. 200 meter races are rarely held. But years ago the Olympic committee was trying to decide what events they could cut out since the number of them was getting very large. Someone suggested eliminating the 200 meter since it wasn't a popular distance. Then they realized it was the original race, so they kept it.
One of the most important things that the world's citizens need to do if we are to survive is to take better care of our young people.
When I was in high school I was lazy about sports. I never played football, I was no good at baseball because of myopia, so I played basketball which I really didn't like. Then one year the school offered track and field. I ran around the track a few times. I strained my arm trying to throw the javelin. I didn't have enough beef on me to put the shot. I was basically flunking out of Phys Ed. But then the sky opened up, angels came down and twirled around my head and the heavenly trumpets blared. I discovered the discus.
The first time a flung it people stopped and looked. With a little advice from the coach I was soon a competing discus thrower and I was a winner.
So then I went off to college as a music major with a meager $200 scholarship based on a song I had written. I was a poor student because I had to work. I had an all night job in law enforcement, a week end job as a janitor and some hours during the week in the library. I had a faculty adviser who was so absent minded he couldn't remember what college his sone was in. This circumstance lasted for a year and a half until I realized I was in the wrong school and the financial burden was destroying any possible joy at being there. So I quit and began my vagabond life. At about the same time producers started hiring me as an actor and that became my career, all hope of being a musician faded.
The reason for this autobiography is that years later, by accident, I discovered that there are excellent universities in this country that offer full scholarships to discus throwers. I was good enough. I would have qualified.
If I had known that such a thing was even possible I would have gone looking for it. But I had no guidance, from anyone. It's one of the major regrets of my life. But I don't think about it much. I don't regret my life as an entertainer. It has been an adventurous, exciting, satisfying and fulfilling career. But I rue that I didn't learn music at the time.
By all means ask young people what they think and what they want. And respect their wisdom to the extent they have any. Offer your suggestions and advice whether they take it or not. The positive things you do for young people will have a far reaching effect for all of us the world over. The negative things you do, or the things you don't do, may have the opposite effect.
I'm an educated man even with no college degree. I've taught myself a lot of things. I read history, philosophy, psychology and religion. Now I'm also a writer and a painter, and I'm learning music in between times. I wish I had some sort of a musical instrument. My ideal home, when I get there, will have a piano.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
******************
Friedrich Nietzsche
**********************
Hello Ernie
Hello Jubail
Hello Doha
Hello Ile-de-France
Hello Istanbul
Hello Herdon
Hello Kalamazoo
Hello Rochester
(Just a few of the 13 who aren't watching the Olympics all the time and took the trouble to check in with the Vagabond.)
****************************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Who's watching the day?
*******************************
I enjoy the Olympic sports, but I'm most interested in the track and field events. The first Olympic mete back in ancient Greece was a 200 meter foot race. These days runners compete in the 100 meter and 500 meter races and longer. 200 meter races are rarely held. But years ago the Olympic committee was trying to decide what events they could cut out since the number of them was getting very large. Someone suggested eliminating the 200 meter since it wasn't a popular distance. Then they realized it was the original race, so they kept it.
One of the most important things that the world's citizens need to do if we are to survive is to take better care of our young people.
When I was in high school I was lazy about sports. I never played football, I was no good at baseball because of myopia, so I played basketball which I really didn't like. Then one year the school offered track and field. I ran around the track a few times. I strained my arm trying to throw the javelin. I didn't have enough beef on me to put the shot. I was basically flunking out of Phys Ed. But then the sky opened up, angels came down and twirled around my head and the heavenly trumpets blared. I discovered the discus.
The first time a flung it people stopped and looked. With a little advice from the coach I was soon a competing discus thrower and I was a winner.
So then I went off to college as a music major with a meager $200 scholarship based on a song I had written. I was a poor student because I had to work. I had an all night job in law enforcement, a week end job as a janitor and some hours during the week in the library. I had a faculty adviser who was so absent minded he couldn't remember what college his sone was in. This circumstance lasted for a year and a half until I realized I was in the wrong school and the financial burden was destroying any possible joy at being there. So I quit and began my vagabond life. At about the same time producers started hiring me as an actor and that became my career, all hope of being a musician faded.
The reason for this autobiography is that years later, by accident, I discovered that there are excellent universities in this country that offer full scholarships to discus throwers. I was good enough. I would have qualified.
If I had known that such a thing was even possible I would have gone looking for it. But I had no guidance, from anyone. It's one of the major regrets of my life. But I don't think about it much. I don't regret my life as an entertainer. It has been an adventurous, exciting, satisfying and fulfilling career. But I rue that I didn't learn music at the time.
By all means ask young people what they think and what they want. And respect their wisdom to the extent they have any. Offer your suggestions and advice whether they take it or not. The positive things you do for young people will have a far reaching effect for all of us the world over. The negative things you do, or the things you don't do, may have the opposite effect.
I'm an educated man even with no college degree. I've taught myself a lot of things. I read history, philosophy, psychology and religion. Now I'm also a writer and a painter, and I'm learning music in between times. I wish I had some sort of a musical instrument. My ideal home, when I get there, will have a piano.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
******************
Saturday, July 28, 2012
It's Today
Through remaining in the present, we can let go of the past and the future - the headquarters of our fears.
Lama tsony
******************
Hello Frosty
******************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
It's night now, or it's day, or it's both.
---------------------------------
I enjoy reading history. History is about events. But even more history is about people, people make the events happen. If you read enough history you get the accurate impression that the human race has been at war with itself ever since the first cave man picked up a rock and threw it at someone.
You've heard the axiom "history repeats itself" and you've probably also heard that if people aren't aware of history they are in danger of repeating it. Well they apparently repeat it anyway even if they are aware. It's that repetition of events that makes history interesting to me. It means that history for me is not a linear study.
Read a newspaper, if you can find a newspaper in this E age, and you will find that all the things that have ever gone on are going on right now. The past is just the present with dust on it. And that leads me into considering the present as the only reality, which it is.
Why should we fear the past? Or why should we fear because there is a past? Most of it is a bucket of ashes and what remains should be laughed at. You made some events happen, some of them were successful and some were failures, and that about sums it up. Did you learn something from your mistakes. Good. Then that's what the past is for. Now forget it.
Why should we fear the future, or fear because there is a future? As someone said, the future is much like the present only longer. By an amazing bit of alchemy the present turns into the past just as fast as it turns into the future. And that's what makes the present, today, this hour, so important. If you do it wrong you may have a regret or two, something else to put into the bucket of ashes. But what ever you do, whatever event you make happen, it will define your future. You're making history. And once done it's best to let go of it. When you throw the rock you don't run after it to make sure it hits the target. It hits or it misses. Get on with life.
Another important thing about the present is that you can't measure it the way you can measure the past or plan the future. That's what makes it so vital. It is the only real time there is. Think of the time you've wasted going over the past in your head, your memories and your regrets. or planning or fretting about the future, while all the while this minute is waiting patiently to be turned into thought, feeling and action.
I don't "believe in yesterday." I don't believe "life is what you do while your waiting to die." Scripture says "Now is the day of salvation." Whatever "salvation" means to you, it's right in front of you.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
****************************
Lama tsony
******************
Hello Frosty
******************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
It's night now, or it's day, or it's both.
---------------------------------
I enjoy reading history. History is about events. But even more history is about people, people make the events happen. If you read enough history you get the accurate impression that the human race has been at war with itself ever since the first cave man picked up a rock and threw it at someone.
You've heard the axiom "history repeats itself" and you've probably also heard that if people aren't aware of history they are in danger of repeating it. Well they apparently repeat it anyway even if they are aware. It's that repetition of events that makes history interesting to me. It means that history for me is not a linear study.
Read a newspaper, if you can find a newspaper in this E age, and you will find that all the things that have ever gone on are going on right now. The past is just the present with dust on it. And that leads me into considering the present as the only reality, which it is.
Why should we fear the past? Or why should we fear because there is a past? Most of it is a bucket of ashes and what remains should be laughed at. You made some events happen, some of them were successful and some were failures, and that about sums it up. Did you learn something from your mistakes. Good. Then that's what the past is for. Now forget it.
Why should we fear the future, or fear because there is a future? As someone said, the future is much like the present only longer. By an amazing bit of alchemy the present turns into the past just as fast as it turns into the future. And that's what makes the present, today, this hour, so important. If you do it wrong you may have a regret or two, something else to put into the bucket of ashes. But what ever you do, whatever event you make happen, it will define your future. You're making history. And once done it's best to let go of it. When you throw the rock you don't run after it to make sure it hits the target. It hits or it misses. Get on with life.
Another important thing about the present is that you can't measure it the way you can measure the past or plan the future. That's what makes it so vital. It is the only real time there is. Think of the time you've wasted going over the past in your head, your memories and your regrets. or planning or fretting about the future, while all the while this minute is waiting patiently to be turned into thought, feeling and action.
I don't "believe in yesterday." I don't believe "life is what you do while your waiting to die." Scripture says "Now is the day of salvation." Whatever "salvation" means to you, it's right in front of you.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
****************************
Friday, July 27, 2012
Through The Veil
Things that do not change and cannot change are invisible, unintelligible; we are surrounded by them.
Bate
**************
Hello Val
*****************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
When is it night and when is it not night?
-----------------------------------------------
I won't deny that it takes a lot of courage to look within the veil. That's why only the high priests were allowed to do it. Because they were prepared for the exposure they would witness, the expression of the unknown, the complete truth in it's own language.
The spirit world is not a world of ghosts and supernatural events. It isn't filled with strange apparitions and unexpected flashes of light and mysterious sounds. If those things can be perceived they are not from spirit. Our human senses may only perceive things that change, even as something as stagnant as a rock. The intermolecular activity that happens, growth and decay, enables us to see it. There is a school of thought that claims every extant thing is really a set of vibrations and our senses sinterpret those vibrations into things, as in the case of sound. Others say that if a thing cannot be observed by the senses or by complicated listening and measuring devices it doesn't exist. That theory is fine if one believes that the human senses are all there is to acquiring knowledge.
But the high priest was prepared to witness more than his senses cold tell him. He was prepared to enter into the most holy place, known as he Shekinah, where there was brilliant light and the appearance of the unchanging reality of existence. To those outside it resembled a thick, frightening, impenetrable cloud. Superstition called it a great, specific influx of spirituality or God visiting the Earth.
How could one possibly develop a sense that can see beyond the veil and into the cloud? I think the first step would be to acknowledge that there is such a sense and it is available to man. The next step might be to affirm that the ordinary human senses can't tell us the whole story and should be excluded from the search. Then time and effort must be spent training ourselves to look and listen without those senses, to engage the mind in a pure preparation for gaining the wisdom and the desire, the definite ardent, urgent need to be led to the door of enlightenment.
Are there high priests today who can enter that Shekinah? Perhaps there are. I think so. But we would most likely be looking for them on a mountain top or in a monetary somewhere. Whereas they probably walk among us.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
**************************
Bate
**************
Hello Val
*****************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
When is it night and when is it not night?
-----------------------------------------------
I won't deny that it takes a lot of courage to look within the veil. That's why only the high priests were allowed to do it. Because they were prepared for the exposure they would witness, the expression of the unknown, the complete truth in it's own language.
The spirit world is not a world of ghosts and supernatural events. It isn't filled with strange apparitions and unexpected flashes of light and mysterious sounds. If those things can be perceived they are not from spirit. Our human senses may only perceive things that change, even as something as stagnant as a rock. The intermolecular activity that happens, growth and decay, enables us to see it. There is a school of thought that claims every extant thing is really a set of vibrations and our senses sinterpret those vibrations into things, as in the case of sound. Others say that if a thing cannot be observed by the senses or by complicated listening and measuring devices it doesn't exist. That theory is fine if one believes that the human senses are all there is to acquiring knowledge.
But the high priest was prepared to witness more than his senses cold tell him. He was prepared to enter into the most holy place, known as he Shekinah, where there was brilliant light and the appearance of the unchanging reality of existence. To those outside it resembled a thick, frightening, impenetrable cloud. Superstition called it a great, specific influx of spirituality or God visiting the Earth.
How could one possibly develop a sense that can see beyond the veil and into the cloud? I think the first step would be to acknowledge that there is such a sense and it is available to man. The next step might be to affirm that the ordinary human senses can't tell us the whole story and should be excluded from the search. Then time and effort must be spent training ourselves to look and listen without those senses, to engage the mind in a pure preparation for gaining the wisdom and the desire, the definite ardent, urgent need to be led to the door of enlightenment.
Are there high priests today who can enter that Shekinah? Perhaps there are. I think so. But we would most likely be looking for them on a mountain top or in a monetary somewhere. Whereas they probably walk among us.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
**************************
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
There Is More
The unseen world hath become seen; the unreal hath become the real.
John Newbrough
**********************
Hello Lily
**********************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Blessings are awaiting in the dark.
********************************
Something I like to make note of now and then is the fact that all the physical laws that allow us today to have TV, airplanes, computers and space ships have always been there. We didn't invent the laws. Scientists with vision and imagination are hang glided over the cliffs of new wisdom that is just about to reveal itself, old laws coming into consciousness. It is also true of artists with comparable courage and imagination.
Scientists and artists build on revealed knowledge and proven principles to discover new ways of doing things and in the process new principles, new laws. And yet, since they are discoverable, they are not new at all. They have always been there. The motto of the experimental adventurous thinker is "There is more."
It is recorded that the ancient Hebrew prophets spoke one on one with a voice which they called the "word of God." There was a voice, no doubt, but what was it and where did it come from and how could those prophets be so clear of mind that they actually heard it? Socrates spoke of hearing such a voice, so have many others. Even today it isn't unusual to have the answer to a problem come into your head like a silent voice. It has certainly happened to me, many times. I've come to expect it. I was hiking one day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was a long trail over a mountain range I had never been on before. As I was descending from one of the summits I heard a quiet voice right next to me as clear as if someone was standing there. In fact I looked to the side expecting to see someone. But I was alone. The voice said "You're off the trail." I looked down and saw that, in fact, I was not on the trail. Losing the trail can be dangerous if you aren't an experienced hiker as I wasn't. I looked back up and saw a place where I knew I had been on the trail and hiked back up to it. When I got there I saw the trail took a sharp turn which I had missed.
It can also happen with a vision. Sitting quietly with your eyes closed you may see a sight that tells you what you need to know. For some people that vision can come with eyes open.
Some people go through many ways of trying to get in touch with those voices and visions. They draw circles on the ground, read tea leaves, stare into crystal balls or sit and wait over a Ouija board, for example. They are trying to hear the voice or see the sight. These days there are people doing terrible things because they say God told them to. That's a sad state of delusion. At worst it was the devil, or their conscious or unconscious belief in the devil, that spoke. The devil is very clever at masquerading as God. But the best trick the devil pulls is getting people to believe he's real.
The most important thing is to realize that the laws of being are all still there and have always been there waiting to be discovered. And they will be discovered and put to use by those who watch and listen, who know that it isn't over yet, who say "There is more."
"Impossible be strange attempts to those who weigh their pains in sense," wrote Shakespeare. We can look forward to the unseen becoming seen and the unreal becoming real.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
*************************
John Newbrough
**********************
Hello Lily
**********************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Blessings are awaiting in the dark.
********************************
Something I like to make note of now and then is the fact that all the physical laws that allow us today to have TV, airplanes, computers and space ships have always been there. We didn't invent the laws. Scientists with vision and imagination are hang glided over the cliffs of new wisdom that is just about to reveal itself, old laws coming into consciousness. It is also true of artists with comparable courage and imagination.
Scientists and artists build on revealed knowledge and proven principles to discover new ways of doing things and in the process new principles, new laws. And yet, since they are discoverable, they are not new at all. They have always been there. The motto of the experimental adventurous thinker is "There is more."
It is recorded that the ancient Hebrew prophets spoke one on one with a voice which they called the "word of God." There was a voice, no doubt, but what was it and where did it come from and how could those prophets be so clear of mind that they actually heard it? Socrates spoke of hearing such a voice, so have many others. Even today it isn't unusual to have the answer to a problem come into your head like a silent voice. It has certainly happened to me, many times. I've come to expect it. I was hiking one day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was a long trail over a mountain range I had never been on before. As I was descending from one of the summits I heard a quiet voice right next to me as clear as if someone was standing there. In fact I looked to the side expecting to see someone. But I was alone. The voice said "You're off the trail." I looked down and saw that, in fact, I was not on the trail. Losing the trail can be dangerous if you aren't an experienced hiker as I wasn't. I looked back up and saw a place where I knew I had been on the trail and hiked back up to it. When I got there I saw the trail took a sharp turn which I had missed.
It can also happen with a vision. Sitting quietly with your eyes closed you may see a sight that tells you what you need to know. For some people that vision can come with eyes open.
Some people go through many ways of trying to get in touch with those voices and visions. They draw circles on the ground, read tea leaves, stare into crystal balls or sit and wait over a Ouija board, for example. They are trying to hear the voice or see the sight. These days there are people doing terrible things because they say God told them to. That's a sad state of delusion. At worst it was the devil, or their conscious or unconscious belief in the devil, that spoke. The devil is very clever at masquerading as God. But the best trick the devil pulls is getting people to believe he's real.
The most important thing is to realize that the laws of being are all still there and have always been there waiting to be discovered. And they will be discovered and put to use by those who watch and listen, who know that it isn't over yet, who say "There is more."
"Impossible be strange attempts to those who weigh their pains in sense," wrote Shakespeare. We can look forward to the unseen becoming seen and the unreal becoming real.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
*************************
A Journey Through Thoght
To be aware of that of which we are ignorant is dwelling with shadows. But to be unaware of that of which we are ignorant is deep darkness indeed.
Dana Bate
******************************
Hello to the person in Ile-de-France, Paris
*******************************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Sometimes darkness comes at noon,
and sometimes the light shines at midnight.
---------------------------------------------
This is the 1,825 edition of Vagabond Journeys. When I first began this journal I posted quotes from the wise and witty, without comments. But when people started to comment I decided to add a few thoughts of my own.
I have 112 pages of quotes, single spaced, small font, about 30 to 35 per page. They come mainly from my reading, books, magazines and newspapers, some come from other journalists and some are my own, (as in above). As I look back over them I realize that back in 2006 when I first started collecting these quotes, I thought some ideas were very clever and worth a lot of thought which I now regard as simple statements of fact that need no embellishment, such as "Worrying makes you cross the bridge before you come to it." (Harvey Mackey) A self-evidently apt analogy that needs no explanation or comment, I will gladly place it within the body of a journal entry one day to add some zest.
I try to avoid polemics, although the temptation to plunge in is great. But I find that the best political quotes are the humorous ones, like this one from Howard Zinn "If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates."
There are quotes that stroke my poetic self, and I enjoy learning from them. "I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame." (Yeats)
There are the esoteric and mystic authors that intrigue me and give me much to say. "I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming of being a man?" (Zhuangzi)
I, at last, have become ready to take on the big thinkers, like Friedrich Nietzsche, "Blessedness is not a promise, it has no strings attached; it is the ONLY reality - everything else is just a symbol used to speak about it."
The lesson for me from the past 6 years is that grappling with the thoughts of some of these thinkers has evolved my own thinking process, cleared some questions, placed larger and rangier issues on the table for me, made me more aware of that of which I am ignorant and doused me in a baptism of learning. Now I do what I hope everyone does or will do. I look for the light that shines at midnight.
Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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Dana Bate
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Hello to the person in Ile-de-France, Paris
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"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Sometimes darkness comes at noon,
and sometimes the light shines at midnight.
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This is the 1,825 edition of Vagabond Journeys. When I first began this journal I posted quotes from the wise and witty, without comments. But when people started to comment I decided to add a few thoughts of my own.
I have 112 pages of quotes, single spaced, small font, about 30 to 35 per page. They come mainly from my reading, books, magazines and newspapers, some come from other journalists and some are my own, (as in above). As I look back over them I realize that back in 2006 when I first started collecting these quotes, I thought some ideas were very clever and worth a lot of thought which I now regard as simple statements of fact that need no embellishment, such as "Worrying makes you cross the bridge before you come to it." (Harvey Mackey) A self-evidently apt analogy that needs no explanation or comment, I will gladly place it within the body of a journal entry one day to add some zest.
I try to avoid polemics, although the temptation to plunge in is great. But I find that the best political quotes are the humorous ones, like this one from Howard Zinn "If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates."
There are quotes that stroke my poetic self, and I enjoy learning from them. "I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame." (Yeats)
There are the esoteric and mystic authors that intrigue me and give me much to say. "I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming of being a man?" (Zhuangzi)
I, at last, have become ready to take on the big thinkers, like Friedrich Nietzsche, "Blessedness is not a promise, it has no strings attached; it is the ONLY reality - everything else is just a symbol used to speak about it."
The lesson for me from the past 6 years is that grappling with the thoughts of some of these thinkers has evolved my own thinking process, cleared some questions, placed larger and rangier issues on the table for me, made me more aware of that of which I am ignorant and doused me in a baptism of learning. Now I do what I hope everyone does or will do. I look for the light that shines at midnight.
Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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