29 April 2009
The tragedy of modern man is that his creativity, his spirituality, and his contemplative independence are inexorably throttled by a superego that has sold itself without question or compromise to the devil of technology.
Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience, 129.
A monastic community . . . is an efficient, living, useful survival of the past.
Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience, 125. [emphasis mine]
2 January 2009
Abundance has brought beautiful things to our lives, but that bevy of material goods has not necessarily made us much happier. The paradox of prosperity is that while living standards have risen steadily decade after decade, personal, family, and life satisfaction haven’t budged. That’s why more people–liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it–are resolving the paradox by searching for meaning. As Columbia University’s Andrew Delbanco puts it, “The most striking feature of contemporary culture is the unslaked craving for transendence.”
Daniel Pink argues that we should be developing the right side of our brains to compensate for the over-developed left brain skills. The areas for growth include:
Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, 35.
2 January 2009
The grace said by the preacher at the party Otis organized at Gloria Dump’s backyard:
Dear God, thank you for warm summer nights and candlelight and good food. But thank you most of all for friends. We appreciate the complicated and wonderful gifts you give us in each other. And we appreciate the task you put down before us, of loving each other the best we can, even as you love us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen
Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie (Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2000), 153.
26 November 2008
truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking. . . . Deliberate thinking is a wonderful tool when we have the luxury of time, the help of a computer, and a clearly defined task, and the fruits of that type of analysis can set the stage for rapid cognition. . . . in good decision making, frugality matters. . . . even the most complicated of relationships and problems . . . have an identifiable underlying pattern. . . . Overloading the decision makers with information . . . makes picking up that signature harder, not easier. To be a successful decision maker, we have to edit. . . . Snap judgments can be made in a snap because they are frugal, and if we want to protect our snap judgments, we have to take steps to protect that frugality.
Malcolm Gladwell, blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, 141-143.
11 August 2008
My desire to become a good fisherman hasn’t changed since I was a child. But my definition of a good fisherman sure has. It’s no longer about quantity or quality or even consistency. It’s not about catching fish when others aren’t or catching more when they are getting a few. It’s about respecting and appreciating fish, the environment, and the rights of other anglers while enjoying every aspect of every moment on the water… Fishing is my chosen umbilical cord, one that reconnects me with nature.
Frank P. Baron, What Fish Don’t Want You to Know: An Insider’s Guide to Freshwater Fishing, p148, 150
1 August 2008
The perfect freedom is reserved for the person who lives by their own work and in that work does what they want to do
R. G. Collingwood, British philosopher and historian (1889-1943)
21 July 2008
you ought, as a regular thing, to be getting words and thoughts of encouragement and visions of glorious things from the Lord. If you’re not getting those, you are in a rut. If you are in a rut, for goodness sake get help. Become a partner with someone you are accountable to. Walk together.
http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=5653&srcid=5636
19 June 2008
In a letter to Robert Meuchin dated 15 January 1966, Thomas Merton wrote:
I would say that there is one basic idea that should be kept in mind in all the changes we make in life, whether of career or anything else. We should decide not in view of better pay, higher rank, “getting ahead”, but in view of becoming more real, entering more authentically into direct contact with life, living more as a free and mature person, able to give myself more to others, able to understand myself and the world better.
Thomas Merton, Witness to Freedom: Letters in Times of Crisis, 254-255.
18 June 2008
I’m still waiting for Americans to realize that being in constant communication is not an advantage, but a short leash. Cell phones have changed us from a nation of self-reliant pioneer types into a bunch of men standing alone in supermarkets saying, “Okay, I’m in the tampon aisle, but I don’t see it.”
John Gierach, Fool’s Paradise, p5.
4 April 2008
failure on the human level may feel like a curse but on the level of spiritual unfolding it can be a blessing in disguise. . . . This shift to the spiritual perspective shows us the relative value of success in God’s eyes. The Pharisee, who was the symbol of human success, was a failure before God in comparison to the humble Publican. . . . Instead of making failure an occasion for self-flagellation, we can see it in faith as a condition for our spiritual progress
Susan Muto and Adrian van Kaam, Practicing the Prayer of Presence, 91-93
Failure ploughs the soil of my soul;
it prepares me to receive the seed of the gospel.
Failure bends my back low,
the right stance to carry my daily cross.
Failure humbles me into the common man,
so I may learn to love my neighbour.
Failure pierces my heart with pain,
that I may know the Suffering Servant.
–by Wan Phek How
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