Is there a "quote" thread yet???

[Kätzchen]

"If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers and scientists are keeping society together," -- Rita Dove.

[Kätzchen]

Found an interesting comment, made by a poster on an NPR article this morning, about that family from Arizona who were rescued at sea. Don't know if this will make anyone else smile, but I found myself smiling while reading the comments section. (Link to NPR article found ~>>> HERE)

Originally Posted by E Brittingham

People are incapable of understanding that not everyone wants to live in a subdivision, eat at the "Olive Garden", and waste their lives in front of the TV. When I left college and decided to wander the country tending bar where ever I wound up, everybody said I was crazy. When I opened my first restaurant, at 26 years of age, on little more than entirely unproven confidence in my own ability and about a third of the money I needed to do it right, everybody said I was crazy. When I sold the place 5 years later and bought open ended "Around the World Fare" tickets for myself and my girlfriend and took off without any idea where we'd wind up or when we'd be back, everybody said I was crazy. When I came home and decided to buy a fire damaged Victorian era house and strip it to the frame and rebuild it without a day's experience in construction, everybody said I was crazy. Now, I live in one of the nicest houses in town with my beautiful wife and daughter and, everybody thinks I've lived a fascinating life. You just have to shrug off the constant nay saying of doughy-bodied know-it-alls and hope that you are smart enough to survive by your own wits. The Gastonguay family obviously is not. But, good on them for taking a chance, even if it was motivated by religious lunacy.

[Kätzchen]

Burned Forest
~ Nichita Stãnescu

Black snow was falling. The tree line
shone when I turned to see -
I had wondered long and silent,
alone, trailing memory behind me.

And it seemed the stars, fixed as they were,
ground their teeth, a stiffened nexus,
an infernal machine, tolling
the halted hours of conciousness.

Then, a thick silence descends,
and my every gesture
leaves a comet tail in the heavens.

And I hear evey glance I cast
as it echoes against
some tree.

Child, what were you seeking there,
with your gangly arms and pointed shoulders
on which the wings were barely dry -
black snow drifting in the evening sky.

A horizon howling, far from view,
darting its tongues and anthracite,
dragged me forever down the mute row,
my body, half naked, sliding from sight.

In distances of smoke the town afire,
blazing beneath the planes, a frigid pyre.
We two, forest, what did we do?
Why did they burn you, forest, in a toga of ash -
and the moon no longer passes over you?

From the book "Bas-Relief with Heroes"
english translation by Thomas Carlson and Vasile Poenaru.

[Scots_On_The_Rocks]

"There is in each of us an ancient force that takes and an ancient force that gives. A man finds little difficulty facing that place within himself where the taking force dwells, but it’s almost impossible for him to see into the giving force without changing into something other than man. For a woman, the situation is reversed. ... These things are so ancient within us that they're ground into each separate cell of our bodies. We're shaped by such forces. You can say to yourself, 'Yes, I see how such a thing may be.' But when you look inward and confront the raw force of your own life unshielded, you see your peril. You see that this could overwhelm you. The greatest peril to the Giver is the force that takes. The greatest peril to the Taker is the force that gives. It's as easy to be overwhelmed by giving as by taking."

~Paul Muad'Dib Excerpt from the novel "Dune"

[DMW]

[*Anya*]

My daughter and I were talking today about the damage parents do, wether we want to or not, and she told me about this poem. I think it is so good:

This Be The Verse

BY PHILIP LARKIN

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.


Philip Larkin, “This Be the Verse” from Collected Poems. Used by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Philip Larkin.

Source: Collected Poems (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2001)

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178055

[Talon]

If you look at how our society and culture shape personal development,
I believe you will agree with the following conclusion: there is a conspiracy at work in our society aimed at alienating you from your true self. The alienation from your true self begins at birth.

Many well-intentioned parents are encouraged to place their infant on a feeding schedule. The child is fed when the plan dictates, not when the child's biology requires. If a child needs to cry or rage, he or she is often discouraged from such displays because of the parent's social or personal discomfort. At school, the active child must learn to repress his or her excitement and assimilate into the passive learning environment that characterizes most educational approaches today. We are cajoled, manipulated, and sometimes coddled away from our core self in order to fit some idea of what society says we should be. We are conditioned to fit into the social norm, which too often means fragmenting and splitting ourselves into pieces so we can gain social approval. Some social critics have referred to this conditioning as creating a hypnotic trance. We are asleep, dreaming we are awake.

We have contributed to our problem by buying into these myths. We are simultaneously victims and perpetrators of this psychological crime. We disown many important and vital parts of ourselves to fit in and be what we think we should be. We collude with society and our parents and join the fatal conspiracy. We become as much to blame as our parents, well-intentioned caregivers, grandparents, teachers, mentors, lovers, spouses, colleagues, and bosses. We alienate our true self over and over again, often to the point where our true self is unrecognizable. We don't know our self except through the roles that we play.



~Allen Berger, Ph.D.

[Kätzchen]

[torchiegirl]

...
...
...
"Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees"

~Stonewall Jackson

...
...