A Depressing Thought
That a fantastic flower develops from just a little tiny seed–
that knowing that doesn’t totally rip us out of our minds–that’s a
depressing thought.
Edward Weston (American, 1886-1958, Circus Tent, 1924. Gelatin silver print. Thank you, iamjapanese & eightoffive.
Before I travelled my road I was my road.
Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Rudy Burckhardt, A View from Brooklyn II, 1953. Thank you, litverve.
Isaac Levitan, At the summer house in twilight, c.1895. Thank you, litverve.
Human beings fall rather easily into the consciousness of purposeful action: “I want this, so I will go get it.” “I need this.” “I have to do that.” “If I don’t do this, something bad will happen and I will die.” Such is the basic murmur of mammalian consciousness. Spiritual practices (along with other basic lineaments of human culture, of course) are in part a set of techniques to free a person from unquestioning enslavement to that imperative mind. They allow us to look around, to step back and see things as they are, to apprehend thoughts, impulses, concepts as part of the larger whole. Art does this as well, and art plays a role in a human life that is probably not unrelated to spiritual ritual. Both stop you in your mammalian tracks and let you see and know your life through larger eyes and ears.
Jane Hirshfield. Courtesy of The Muse Daily.
When I break any of the chains that bind me I feel that I make myself smaller.
Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
A thing, until it is everything, is noise, and once it is everything it is silence.
Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Because they know the name of what I am looking for, they think they know what I am looking for!
Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
It takes all the running you can do just to keep in the same place.
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, 1872
