Ah, the mountain!
Old enough to know
When to stay quiet,
And disciplined enough
To stick to it.
Mountain Envy [Free Verse]
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Category Archives: Philosophy of Life
PROMPT: Perspective
Daily writing prompt
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
I’m getting more at ease with Death by the day. In a broader sense, it’s progressively easier to not get worked up over the everchanging and unpredictable nature of the world.
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Swimmingly [Free Verse]
Swim through the world
- effortlessly -
Don't crave speed;
Maximize the glide.
With each stroke,
Sail as far as the limbs
will send one.
Don't thrash. Don't splash.
Don't gasp.
Feel the catch. Feel the pull.
Don't let short, wild motions
exhaust one.
Breathe!
Be wary of drag.
Put less effort
into propulsion,
And more into streamlining --
Shoot through the void,
without struggle.
Never lose sight of the value
of a good glide.
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PROMPT: Complain
People. They’re the worst. Or, possibly, technology. It’s a close runner up, at least. Of course, on some level, it’s all one shitstorm. Humans are the technological animal, and technology facilitates the making of comfort junkies who avoid deep thought at all costs. (Which is at the core of my beef.)
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“The Past” by Ralph Waldo Emerson [w/ Audio]
The debt is paid,
The verdict said,
The Furies laid,
The plague is stayed,
All fortunes made;
Turn the key and bolt the door,
Sweet is death forevermore.
Nor haughty hope, nor swart chagrin,
Nor murdering hate, can enter in.
All is now secure and fast;
Not the gods can shake the Past;
Flies-to the adamantine door
Bolted down forevermore.
None can re-enter there, --
No thief so politic,
No Satan with a royal trick
Steal in by window, chink, or hole,
To bind or unbind, add what lacked,
Insert a leaf, or forge a name,
New-face or finish what is packed,
Alter or mend eternal Fact.
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FIVE WISE LINES [January 2025]
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, does not go away.”
Philip k. dick
“The Wu and the Yue peoples hate each other. But in the same boat in a storm, they work together like left and right hands.”
SunZi in The ART of War
“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks – on your body or on your heart – are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.”
anthony bourdain
What allows great kings and generals to win, more frequently than ordinary men, is foreknowledge.
Sunzi in The ART of war
Foreknowledge cannot be attained by spirits or deduced or calculated.”
“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
T. S. Eliot
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BOOKS: “Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction” by Daniel K. Gardner
Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction by Daniel K. GardnerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – OUP
This is a brief guide to Confucianism from the early life of Confucius (孔子 -Kǒngzǐ) to the ups and downs the philosophy experienced in the twentieth century. It has chapters exploring the system’s thinking with respect to personal development as well as with respect to governance and also discusses how later thinkers (most notably Mencius and Xunzi) expanded on Confucius’s ideas — but also created schisms. The book examines the laudable elements of the philosophy such as its sanction of benevolence among leaders, but also its less laudable elements such as its unenlightened views on women and what they are capable of [and, of course, the many ideas in between that could be seen in varied lights.)
As with other books in this series, it has a few graphics as well as a bibliography and further reading section.
I found this book to be readable, well-organized, and of a level appropriate for its intended purpose. I’d highly recommend it for individuals looking for a concise introduction to Confucianism.
View all my reviews
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“Song of the Open Road” (15 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]
Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe -- I have tried it -- my own feet have
tried it well -- be not detain'd!
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten,
and the book on the shelf unopen'd!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let
the money remain unearn'd!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of
the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the
lawyer plead in the court, and the judge
expound the law.
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than
money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come
travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we
live?
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PROMPT: Favorite Animal
I’m not sure whether the intention is to determine one’s favorite species of animal or one’s favorite particular individual animal. I’ll presume the former as the latter would turn it into a “Which of your pets (or children — for those who count humans among the animal kingdom) do you love best?” type of question — which is awkward to ask anyone with whom one is not on intimate terms.
At any rate, I’ve come to think of assigning favorites as a bad habit of lazy minds, intended to negate the need to actively observe and to see the beauty and brilliance of whatever stands before one at any given moment. [It’s part of a vast array of patterns people develop to be as cognitively disengaged as can be managed.] So, I don’t have a favorite species of animal, but aardvark does come first in the dictionary, if not in my heart.
[Incidentally, when I had multiple pets, I did have a favorite, and — perhaps tellingly — it was the one whose personality was least like my own.]
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“Song of the Open Road” (14 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]
Allons! through struggles and wars!
The goal that was named cannot be
countermanded.
Have the past struggles succeeded?
What has succeeded? yourself? your nation?
Nature?
Now understand me well -- it is provided in
the essence of things that from any
fruition of success, no matter what, shall
come forth something to make a greater
struggle necessary.
My call is the call of battle, I nourish active
rebellion,
He going with me must go well arm'd,
He going with me goes often with spare
diet, poverty, angry enemies, desertions.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 