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Showing posts with label Wisdom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wisdom. Show all posts

Monday, July 26, 2021

Looking Back ~

How obvious are the deficits of our enlightened, high-priced American education. Educated cavemen of conspiracies we are. 


Friday, April 01, 2011

Wise Old Monk ~

During a conversation I asked him where he found all the wisdom he imparts to others. He was embarrassed but said: maybe one has to suffer.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Changing Perspectives ~ On Reading Shakespeare

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
The struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.


I remember reading these lines as a High School student. I was amazed at the ideas Shakespeare presented, the beauty of the metaphors, the strange new way of viewing life. On reading this now there is none of that fascination for the artistry.

What I now read is a precise description of reality as I know it to be, a satisfying statement of truth.


Friday, February 17, 2006

Cicero ~ On Old Age

We were High School students back in the late '40s and were reading Cicero's On Old Age. Back then I didn't know what to make of his statement that it was young men who had sent the most powerful governments crashing to ruin, but it was the old men who had either kept them strong or restored their strength.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Hubris ~ Knowing Oneself

When studying Greek tragedy I remember our professor telling us how the playwrights used hubris [arrogance, pride] in their plays to demonstate how a protagonist who displayed hubris could be led to his own downfall. The Gods would show their disfavor by allowing him to have even more success, then when he felt himself to have achieved everything he wanted they would let him fall and drive him headlong into on into his own undoing.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

God Seeker ~

"No one can seek the Lord who has not already found Him." 
                                           St. Bernard of Clairvaux

A remarkable statement. What is he driving at?
Is he pointing our a natural affinity that has already led us to God, perhaps in our untainted childhood?
Or does "our having found Him" refer to the time before Adam's fall? Or in a prior life? Does he see us as creatures of God, whose limited human nature can only search. Have we have already found Him in some prior state but forgotten or lost Him.