Equanimity and emotional resilience — i.e. the ability to give fewer f___ks.
PROMPT: Better with Age
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Category Archives: Philosophy
“Death” by William Butler Yeats [w/ Audio]
Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone -
Man has created death.
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“Gubbinal” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]
That strange flower, the sun,
Is just what you say.
Have it your way.
The world is ugly,
And the people are sad.
That tuft of jungle feathers,
That animal eye,
Is just what you say.
That savage of fire,
That seed,
Have it your way.
The world is ugly,
And the people are sad.
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The End of the World as We Know It [Free Verse]
Humans have been hunters,
gatherers,
farmers,
machines,
thinkers,
and creators,
And have no idea what we'll next be.
I think that people will next be
-- simply --
Human Beings,
Full-time Human Beings --
More Human,
More Being...
And many will fail spectacularly.
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PROMPT: Music
I’m not one for favorites; I think it’s a form of experiential laziness. That said, there is music that has particular emotional resonance for me because it’s what was playing where I was when I was when I was younger — mostly rock and indie rock.
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Dance, Dance, Dance, Surrender [Free Verse]
Moving through the Great Spontaneous,
Blender blades barely missing --
In fact, sometimes nicking.
The accumulation of those nicks
Is aging.
It takes an ever-defter dance to keep
The damage buildup to a constant pace --
Not letting it blitz one,
Or pull one into the turbine:
Like a goose through
The turbofans of a 787.
A goose may kill a plane,
But becomes dust in the process.
When one surrenders to the choppers
One will not have the satisfaction
Of killing the vehicle,
Of bringing it all down.
The Universe will go on,
And one's molecules will become
Something new.
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“America” by Walt Whitman
Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
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PROMPT: Authority
Absolutely nothing. I’m more of a mile-wide-inch-deep type than a mile-deep-inch-wide type, which is to say a generalist rather than a specialist. So, I do have some insight into how to think about thinking about matters diverse and sundry.
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PROMPT: Romantic
With a big-R, it’s a philosophical and artistic movement that served as a counterweight to the Enlightenment by advocating for Idealism (versus Materialism) and spirituality (if not necessarily religiosity.)
With a small-R, it’s the skill or proclivity to advance conditions for amorousness.
That’s why capitalization matters.
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FIVE WISE LINES [July 2025]
There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.
Josh billings
Everything in the universe is a jug
Rumi, Masnavi
filled to the brim with wisdom and beauty.
Poetry is what gets lost in translation.
Robert frost
“Travel and tell no one, live a true love story and tell no one,
Kahlil gibran
live happily and tell no one, people ruin beautiful things.”
Not all those who wander are lost.
J.r.r. Tolkien, The lord of the rings
Tiger Riding for Beginners 