Have intense confidence that they can achieve anything, but only when they’re not an ass about it. So, have humble confidence or cool confidence?
PROMPT: Admiration
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Tag Archives: Freedom
PROMPT: Historical Figure
Daily writing prompt
If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?
If babel fish existed or I could have access to a fluid translator, then perhaps Drukpa Kunley, (or, alternatively, Hanshan or Ikkyu,) because I would like to know how that level of freedom is achieved (and whether it’s all it’s cracked up to be.)
If I was on my own for language, maybe Thoreau or Whitman. (For largely the same reason.)
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BOOKS: “John Brown” by W.E.B. Du Bois
John Brown by W.E.B. Du BoisMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Available free online at Project Gutenberg
“John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry” is one of those historic events like the “Teapot Dome Scandal” that American kids have to memorize a rote fact about to regurgitate on an American History test a couple times during their scholastic lives, never to be thought of much again, forever a familiar name lacking all depth of understanding. (At least that’s how it was in my day.) Unlike the Teapot Dome Scandal, which I suspect is not learned about in detail because it was somewhat complex and boring, I think the minimalist coverage of John Brown might reflect a bit of national embarrassment. For Brown’s tale is not complicated, and it’s certainly not boring. Brown thought slavery was an abomination, and he devoted his life to freeing slaves by whatever means he could, which culminated in a raid on an arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virgina, at the convergence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, a raid intended to liberate weapons to the cause of arming freed slaves and other abolitionist fighters.
It’s a shame that more is not learned about John Brown because he was such a fascinating and principled individual, and in a sense his story isn’t just an embarrassing tale of a sparse few virtuous people against a mainstream that was — at best — indifferent to slavery. But there is a potential for pride in the fact that Brown and those who fought with him were able to see slavery for what it was and to stand strong against that mainstream, to make the fight of the oppressed their fight and — in the case of Brown and others — to pay the ultimate price in the conduct of that fight.
W.E.B. Du Bois’ biography of John Brown came out in 1909 and may not be written in the novel-esque style that a writer today would write it, but it is well-written and readable. Du Bois’ book is a full biography of Brown, if focused on his abolitionist aspect. Du Bois tells a little of Brown’s backstory and of his work life and then explores his experiences fighting in Kansas. However, this book does really shine in its account of the Harpers Ferry Raid and its aftermath.
Readers interested in American History or the biographies of virtuous individuals are urged to read this account of the life of John Brown.
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PROMPT: Freedom
Of the universe of all possible actions, one can choose to attempt any (or refrain from any) but those curtailed by a small number of laws intended to keep one from impinging upon the freedoms of others or imposing costs / burdens on them to which they did not consent, or by self-imposed limitations (e.g. one’s own ethical belief system or one’s physical / mental limitations.)
Often it is wrongly confused with comfort. A maximally free society is not maximally comfortable for anyone, because one has to accept that others will make all sorts of choices that one would not make oneself (and that it’s none of your business.)
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“Drinking at Night in Dongpo” by Su Shi [w/ Audio]
Drunk at night in Dongpo.
I sober, then drink once more;
I return at three A.M.
To hear boy's thunderous snores.
I knock but there's no answer --
Lean on my staff and listen
To water, and feel my regrets
As ripples in river glisten.
I could vanish in this boat,
And see out my life afloat.
Note: The Song Dynasty poet Su Shi [苏轼] was also known as Dongpo [東坡] or Zizhan [子瞻.]
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PROMPT: Character
Daily writing prompt
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
Wu Song (武松) from Water Margin (水浒传.)
Because he’s a traveler with zero f#&ks to give. There is no more freedom to be had than that.
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The Dance [Free Verse]
What force dances one
into this lovely state?
Light & ecstatic,
Blissful but calm.
Each breath a drug
that sends delicate
shimmers rippling
through the universe.
What force, indeed?
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Freedom [Free Verse]
Everyone loves an impassioned dance --
Not merely for its grace & athleticism --
But, also, because it's emblematic
Of being free -- truly free.
If features the two essential levels
Of freedom:
Freedom from without -- one's body
Being unrestricted and untethered.
&
Freedom from within -- one's mind
Being unfettered by self-consciousness.
Unbound and not weighed down by thought...
That is Freedom.
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Five Wise Lines [June 2024]
The man who says to me, “Believe as I do, or God will damn thee,” will presently say, “Believe as I do, or I shall assassinate thee.”
Voltaire, in On superstition
The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel proust
The translation of a poem having any depth ends by being one of two things: Either it is the expression of the translator, virtually a new poem, or it is as it were a photograph, as exact as possible, of one side of the statue.
Ezra pound
The people are of supreme importance to the ruler,
Chinese adage
food is of supreme importance to the people.
All translators face two choices: leave the reader in peace and drag the author closer, or leave the author in peace and drag the reader closer.
Friedrich schleiermacher (1768-1834)
[Referenced in Twenty-Nine GOODBYES, ed. by timothy billings]
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Five Wise Lines [May 2024]
Play is a state of mind, rather than an activity.
Stuart brown in PLay: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and Invigorates the soul
My sins are running out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I come to judge the sins of another!
From Sayings of the Desert Fathers
(A Senior Monk’s reply upon being asked to Judge a younger monk’s actions)
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth! But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Matthew 5: 38&39
I have no scepter, but I have a pen.
Voltaire to Fredrick the great
If a man is born to error, let us wish him virtuous errors.
Voltaire; ON Superstition
Tiger Riding for Beginners 