On Friendship
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
November 30, 2009
On Joy and Sorrow
On Joy and Sorrow
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
November 23, 2009
Happiness is Tolerance?
I've been thinking about tolerance lately. I attended a thought-provoking lecture by Dr. Ken Jackson this weekend, in which he discussed the virtues of New York City. Jackson posited that New York was unique amongst international cities because it has such a multi-cultural, tolerant population.
I disagreed with a number of Dr. Jackson's arguments, but the lecture got me thinking about "Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner. In short: it's an NPR journalist's exploration of the research done by Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, who researches the happiest places in the world.
Weiner travels from country to country, trying to figure out why people are happy. The first chapter is about the Netherlands, which ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world. Here is Weiner's take on why the Dutch are so happy:
"Tolerance! This is the original "don't tread on me" nation... The Dutch will tolerate anything, even intolerance. In the past few decades they have welcomed, with open arms, immigrants from around the world, including those from nations that don't tolerate things like religious freedom and women who work or drive or show their faces. Dutch tolerance comes at a cost, as the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist highlighted. But Veenhoven's research shoes that tolerant people tend to be happy."
I disagreed with a number of Dr. Jackson's arguments, but the lecture got me thinking about "Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner. In short: it's an NPR journalist's exploration of the research done by Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, who researches the happiest places in the world.
Weiner travels from country to country, trying to figure out why people are happy. The first chapter is about the Netherlands, which ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world. Here is Weiner's take on why the Dutch are so happy:
"Tolerance! This is the original "don't tread on me" nation... The Dutch will tolerate anything, even intolerance. In the past few decades they have welcomed, with open arms, immigrants from around the world, including those from nations that don't tolerate things like religious freedom and women who work or drive or show their faces. Dutch tolerance comes at a cost, as the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist highlighted. But Veenhoven's research shoes that tolerant people tend to be happy."
November 22, 2009
The Reader
Much love goes to Alka, for letting me borrow her copy of "The Reader." While I had ambivalent feelings about the book, a few passages have really struck me. In the interest of not accidentally spoiling the novel, I'm grey-ing out the text below.
"In these years I had read everything I could lay my hands on to do with illiteracy. I knew about the helplessness in everyday activities, finding one's way or finding an address or choosing a meal in a restaurant, about how illiterates anxiously stick to prescribed patterns and familiar routines, about how much energy it takes to conceal one's inability to read and write, energy lost to actual living. Illiteracy is dependence. By finding the courage to learn to read and write, Hanna had advanced from dependence to independence, a step towards liberation."
Addendum: For those interested, here's a great Q&A with Susan A. McLean, the executive director of Literacy Partners.
"In these years I had read everything I could lay my hands on to do with illiteracy. I knew about the helplessness in everyday activities, finding one's way or finding an address or choosing a meal in a restaurant, about how illiterates anxiously stick to prescribed patterns and familiar routines, about how much energy it takes to conceal one's inability to read and write, energy lost to actual living. Illiteracy is dependence. By finding the courage to learn to read and write, Hanna had advanced from dependence to independence, a step towards liberation."
Addendum: For those interested, here's a great Q&A with Susan A. McLean, the executive director of Literacy Partners.
November 11, 2009
For Linda
"Five mysteries hold the keys to the unseen: the act of love, and the birth of a baby, and the contemplation of great art, and being in the presence of death or disaster, and hearing the human voice lifted in song. These are the occasions when the bolts of the universe fly open and we are given a glimpse of what is hidden; an eff of the ineffable." The Ground Beneath Her Feet (Salman Rushdie)
November 9, 2009
How We See Ourselves
Reading this article about Helmut Newton reminded me of another passage from Kissing in Manhattan:
Newton
"Women assume marvelous expressions when they look at themselves," Newton explains. "They lose themselves in their own image. It's fascinating to observe and shoot. It really inspires me physically and mentally."
Kissing in Manhattan
"The woman begins to forget that I'm there. She stares at herself, gets to know her body, and, hopefully, comes to love what she sees, comes to understand that the creature in the mirror is is something extraordinary, elegant, wrapped in dignity, something not meant to be taken lightly."
Newton
"Women assume marvelous expressions when they look at themselves," Newton explains. "They lose themselves in their own image. It's fascinating to observe and shoot. It really inspires me physically and mentally."
Kissing in Manhattan
"The woman begins to forget that I'm there. She stares at herself, gets to know her body, and, hopefully, comes to love what she sees, comes to understand that the creature in the mirror is is something extraordinary, elegant, wrapped in dignity, something not meant to be taken lightly."
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