Category Archives: Humanities

Words to Ponder #40

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.

–Erma Bombeck, Family–The Ties That Bind…And Gag! (1987)

Oh So Pleased

I want to celebrate a recent accomplishment that I had a hand in creating. I am a Friend of the Wells Branch Community Library, a community resource that is growing. (They have no residency requirement, which means anyone not living within the city limits of Austin can get a free card.) They’ll be moving into their new facility soon.

The library has built an alliance with the Barnes and Noble at La Frontera Shopping Center (Round Rock); last Saturday from noon to 6:00 p.m., volunteers handed out vouchers to shoppers. The customers then handed vouchers to the cashier, and 20% of the purchases was donated by the bookstore to the library. I worked for the last hour. We were instructed not to solicit, so we had to be subtle in our approach. All told, we handed out 100 vouchers, and our profit from the book sale is $1190.

I’m quite satisfied with this outcome! If you want to help the library serve others, you can become a friend very easily. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: support your local public library. Access to publications is a fundamental expression of our first amendment right.

Words to Ponder #39

A double entry, for your reading pleasure.

She read Dickens in the spirit in which she would have eloped with him.

–Eudora Welty, “Listening,” One Writer’s Beginnings (1984)

Whatever the theologians might say about Heaven being a state of union with God, I knew it consisted of an infinite library; and eternity … was simply what enabled one to read uninterruptedly forever.

–Dervla Murphy, Wheels Within Wheels (1979)

The Reader’s Bill of Rights

I found this in the current issue of Utne:

The right not to read
The right to skip pages
The right not to finish
The right to reread
The right to read anything
The right to escapism
The right to read anywhere
The right to browse
The right to read out loud
The right not to defend your tastes.

–Daniel Penna, French author, from Better Than Life

These may seem silly. After all, there are no laws about reading, so to articulate one’s rights is superfluous. However, I myself have struggled with self-made rules about reading. I have a rule, for example, that if I start a book, I must finish it. But my time is valuable, and I want to spend it reading what interests me. If I buy a book, I should read it, not just browse through it. So much information! So much chaff. It’s permissible to sort. I’ve also bought more books than I have time to read, and struggled with feeling guilty for that. As if I’m deceiving someone (who? the world?) by having unread books on my shelves.

I know some folks who think fiction is bad to read, that it’s just fantasy, that it’s wasting time in that which is unreal. I would contend that books are probably a more constructive form of escapism than television, however. Reading requires engagement, interaction with the the pages, words, and story. It utilizes imagination.

Recently I decided it was okay not to finish a novel I’d begun, even though it was a Pulitzer prize winner. I also gave myself permission to own as many books as I have space for, and if this means I’ll never read them all, that’s all right. Lastly, I recommend How to Read a Book to readers wanting to get more out of non-fiction reading (or literature and poetry), especially if your desire is to stretch your mental muscles by reading more challenging works.

One Thing Leads to Another

I did a Google News search on “sacred space,” and an article on a labyrinth caught my eye. I then Googled the words walking and labyrinth in the News section and was astonished to find 30 articles that mentioned labyrinths.

I have often been curious about this meditative act, and I intend, someday, to explore one. There is much information on the web about it. One such resource is The Labyrinth: Walking Your Spiritual Journey. In addition to explaining its history, the site provides a labyrinth locator and instructions on how to build one of your own.

Thanksgiving

Today is thanksgiving. Well, every day is, when I make the effort to be mindful of all that is well in my life.

I met with a colleague for several hours today, discussing the work of psychotherapy and the process of creating meaning in one’s life. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with this person (whom I’d met at a seminar). The talk was a high tide, flushing the mental-emotional detritus accruing from the arid isolation of private practice. It was just so enlivening to have company, to share a meal with someone who shares a passion for the same mission in life — that of helping others to heal and grow.

After lunch I ran errands — to the post office, the bank, and a used bookstore. The day is crystal clear, with the watery light of autumn beaming on the world. Texas autumn sunlight is still bright, but not so intense. All the windows were rolled down. I belted out Celtic ballads streaming from the CD player as my car whisked along Highway 183 toward home.

This sense of well-being gently flowing up from my center is a treasure. I have energy to spare. I feel grateful to be here, and grateful for the satisfaction and privilege of putting my talents to good use.

So, what’s going right in your life today?

Words to Ponder #34

My diaries were written primarily, I think, not to preserve the experience but to savor it, to make it even more real, more visible and palpable, than in actual life. For in our family an experience was not finished, not truly experienced, unless written down or shared with another.
–Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Bring Me a Unicorn (1971)

This quote is in honor of Web Writers Weekend Journal Conference in Austin, which begins this afternoon. I’m looking forward to getting to know the many people whose online journals and weblogs that I read. The Internet community of writers is a fascinating one. Relationships span continents. We share opinions, debate, and entertain readers with ordinary life stories told well. We come to know aspects of many writers more deeply than their “real life” folks might. We become attached. We extend. We visit each other. We send gifts and snail mail. The Internet is invaluable to writers — it provides an opportunity for expressiveness and community that is most suitable to the introspective and sometimes solitary person.

The Divine Proportion

Having recently finished the masterfully written novel, The DaVinci Code, I became intrigued by the Divine Proportion, also known as Phi, or the Golden Mean. The number Phi is 1.618033987 (with the lowercase phi being 0.6180339887), and it is manifested in numerous ways. This is how it came to be known in the Renaissance as the Divine Proportion, because it was believed to be God’s hand. It indicates a ratio.

Phi appears in the following places:

  • the human body
  • the proportions of other animals
  • plants
  • DNA
  • the solar system
  • art and architecture
  • music
  • population growth
  • spirals
  • energy
  • the stock market
  • the Bible and in theology.

John Cleese and Elizabeth Hurley do an admirable job of explaining Phi and its role in the concept of beauty in a mini-series called The Human Face. Educational and funny, too.