Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
1. I found a shirt that is even more geeky and niche than my “Holden Caulfield Is A Phony” shirt and it is this:
Take my money, literary t-shirt!
2. Here is a quote from astronomer Annie Jump Cannon, which is as applicable now as it was at the turn of the last century:
“In these days of great trouble and unrest, it is good to have something outside our own planet, something fine and distant and comforting to troubled minds. Let people look to the stars for comfort.”
Something profound I saw on the even*cleveland blog a while back:
…the fact that we can never know light itself is helpful in appreciating the working of boundless compassion. When the light of compassion illuminates our existence, it reveals our self-delusions. Hiroyuki Itsuki … describes this as follows:
We cannot know that we are illuminated by a great light simply by looking up into the sky. But if we lower our heads and look down at our feet we can clearly see the long, dark shadow that stretches out from us. We know that the darker and blacker that shadow is, the brighter the light that shines upon us.
– Taitetsu Unno, Shin Buddhism: Bits of Rubble Turn into Gold.
(Let it shine.)
A friend recommended Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear to me. I didn’t think it was giving me too many “aha!” moments like she promised–until I realized I was just taking pictures of pages because it took too long to write down quotes.
Here’s one that really got me thinking:
“You can see this intention to go toward the right wing in politics that’s taking place. But it will only bring us to a darker place, and a rainier season. Whenever humans lose their courage, it’s always followed by all kinds of tragedies.”
Ai Weiwei, artist, as told to the New York Times
Trader Joes has bunches of ten daffodils for $1.49 right now. That means you can get this for THREE DOLLARS:
And if you’re standing in Trader Joe’s considering whether two bunches (for THREE DOLLARS) is excessive and whether you should just buy one and save a little, remember this quote by Whittier:
“If thou of fortune be bereft,
and in thy store there be but left
two loaves, sell one, and with the
dole, buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.”
Whittier knew how to love a spring bulb.
The warm weather in Southern Utah got me all riled up and now I just want it to be warm enough to sit on the deck after dinner and have long brunches outside and wear shoes that don’t have to keep your feet dry.
While we’re at it, I also want to be tan, and not have wrinkles, and get new carpeting and a new bed and new sheets and new pillows, and maybe get a dog, and definitely get some new clothes.
In other words, I’m feeling this Hemingway today:
“I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel. . . . And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.”
– from “Cat In The Rain”
I found this Chekhov quote recently. I haven’t read much of the Russians but he really nails the feeling of “it’s not really spring but it’s not still winter, either.”
The snow has not yet left the earth, but spring is already asking to enter your heart. If you have ever recovered from a serious illness, you will be familiar with the blessed state when you are in a delicious state of anticipation, and are liable to smile without any obvious reason. Evidently that is what nature is experiencing now. The ground is cold, mud and snow squelches under foot, but how cheerful, gentle and inviting everything is! The air is so clear and transparent that if you were to climb to the top of the pigeon loft or the bell tower, you feel you might see the whole universe from end to end. The sun is shining brightly, and its playful, beaming rays are bathing in the puddles along with the sparrows. The river is swelling and darkening; it has already woken up and very soon will begin to roar. The trees are bare, but they are already living and breathing.
― Anton Chekhov, The Exclamation Mark
Makes me want to listen to Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Russian Easter Overture“.
The colors have peaked, some trees are already naked, the upper gate to Millcreek Canyon is closed, and it’s dark at 5:30. We’re officially in the long slide into winter. But take heart from the words of John Muir:
“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”
‘How many of you know what’s important?’
Up went all the hands.
‘Very good,’ said Stuart, cocking one leg across the other and shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket. ‘Henry Rackmeyer, you tell us what is important.’
‘A shaft of sunlight at the end of a dark afternoon, a note in music, and the way the back of a baby’s neck smells if its mother keeps it tidy,’ answered Henry.
‘Correct,’ said Stuart. ‘Those are the important things. You forgot one thing, though. Mary Bendix, what did Henry Rackmeyer forget?’
‘He forgot ice cream with chocolate sauce on it,’ said Mary quickly.
‘Exactly,’ said Stuart. ‘Ice cream is important.’
E.B. White, Stuart Little.
(via)
Did you know Charlie Chaplin made a movie with sound? That made fun of Hitler? In 1940? I think this is like my Orson Welles moment years ago where it’s common knowledge–but I just found out about The Great Dictator.
And I found out about it because the big speech at the end is maybe even more relevant 65 years later:
We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.