Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
Love
"If we love others, we live in the
light"
1 John 2:10
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov: "A man
who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either
in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others.
When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he
yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end
like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying -- to others and to
yourself."
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel: "Life is short and we have never
too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with
us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind."
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "Neither a lofty degree of
intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love,
love, that is the soul of genius."
- Australian Aboriginal Proverb: "We are all visitors to this
time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn,
to grow, to love... and then we return home."
- Sanaya Roman: "What you love is a sign from your higher
self of what you are to do."
- Billie Holiday: "You've got to have something to eat and a
little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to
behave."
|
Joan of Arcadia |
| Joan is not a particularly religious kid, but she finds herself
encountering various people who introduce themselves as God; she
then is offered specific advice and directions to do things, like get a job or help
someone in need. The CBS hit-show's theme song is "One of Us," a
tune that wonders if God is "just a slob like one of us ... trying to make his way
home." I mention all of this on the "Love" page because I find that the
writers and cast of "Joan" do an exceptionally fine job employing a pop-art
format to discuss a weighty issue of life, that of sacrificial love and service to fellow
human beings. Some of "God's" comments are unusually insightful into the human
condition -- someone on "Joan's" team has been doing some heavy pondering and
soul-searching about how to skillfully live life. The boob-tube is not famous for this
kind of plumbing-the-depths of spirituality, but "Joan" is wonderful, TV worth
watching, as they say. The God of "Joan" is not an Old Testament wrathful Deity
but, as Time critic James Poniewozik notes, a reduction of "God to
principles we can all agree on [which] means taking away much of what makes faith
difficult. With this God, everything is a win-win, and all Joan's chain reactions are for
the better." To this, I will only add that, if the truth be known, faith was not
meant to be difficult to apprehend, and, when all the votes are counted, everything is
win-win. "Joan" helps us catch a glimpse of the simple beauty of a life devoted,
once in a while at least, to thinking about the needs of someone else. |
Leslie Weatherhead, Life Begins At Death:
"Think of F.W.H. Myers saying, through a
reputable medium like Geraldine Cummins, 'If only I could tell you
what [the AfterLife is] like; I just haven't the words to tell you how marvelous it is;
the sense of beauty, the sense of freedom, the sense of love'..."
Professor Daniel N. Robinson, Georgetown University: Robinson,
referring to Aristotle's essay on friendship, asserts that relationships based on
sensuality will endure as long as the parties are in receipt of such commodity; likewise,
those based on utility will remain operative as long as the parties involved find each
other mutually useful. There is, however, a "friendship grounded in virtue, such that
one desires for one's friend what is best for one's friend, and this for the sake of one's
friend. This is perfected or completed friendship (teleia philia), for
its aims do not go outside the friendship itself... teleia philia is not
characteristic of most friendships... A perfected friendship is
possible only between those who are relevantly equal, though the measure of
equality is not quantitative but proportional: as the audience and the great performer are
not equal, but each grants to the other what is due: that is sufficient equality."
[i.e. there is mutual respect; more than this, an appreciation, e.g., for the talents of
others based on the observer's study and dedication to refinement.]
Near-death experiencer, www.near-death.com:
"I felt love -- so much more than romantically, when you fall
in love," she said. "In that moment I felt integrated,
I became a different person. After that... I'm not religious, but I wanted to go help
people."
- The Hippo and the Antelope
- Jeffery Moussaieff Masson
|
In some
extraordinary wildlife footage I was privileged to watch, a small impala antelope in
Africa races away from a pack of wild dogs into a river where she is immediately seized by
a large crocodile. Suddenly a hippopotamus rushes to the rescue of the dazed antelope. The
crocodile releases his prey and the hippo then nudges the small animal up the bank of the
river and follows her for a few feet until she drops from exhaustion. Instead of leaving,
the hippo then helps the little creature to her feet and, opening his mouth wide as
possible, breathes warm air onto the stunned antelope. The hippo does this five times
before returning to the forest. There is no possible explanation for this remarkable
behavior except compassion. |
-
William James:
“Our lives are like
islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest, which
co-mingle their roots in the darkness underground.” [Editor's note: this has been paraphrased as
"separate on the surface, connected at the depths"]
-
Michael Talbot,
Holographic Universe: commenting on the
insight of Sri Yukteswar: "Individuals who live [on the OtherSide,
when] confronted with the multitude of
relatives, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, and friends
acquired during their 'different incarnations on earth,' they are
at a loss as to whom to love especially and thus learn to give 'a
divine and equal love to all.'"
-
Buddha: "You can
search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more
deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and
that person is not to be found anywhere; you yourself, as much as anybody in the entire
universe, deserve your love and affection."
"Where there is no extravagance there
is no love."
Oscar
Wilde
|