"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American lecturer, philosopher, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
"The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love."
Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robbins
"Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best." - Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm (August 24, 1872 – May 20, 1956) was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.
Finding The Balance
I am here again, Trying to figure it all, Trying to square things.
I know I'm not all alone, That others wish to balance The ball precisely.
The perfect poem won't fit In the perfect life.
January 6, 2009 9:57 AM First published May 25, 2009
it is our whole notion of perfect that must change and i think it needs to hinge greatly on acceptance.
frig! that quote by Emerson, "People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." ain't that the truth! I was thinking yesterday - no matter how far i've come or what major life changes i've made, a great deal of my life remains the same. no matter where i go, there i am! this fits perfectly. it's a little disheartening really, but necessary to learn.
So many in blogland talking about balance of late. Must be something we attend to in Spring...like house cleaning. This sticks in my craw..."We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love." And your words could be my own this very day:
I am here again, Trying to figure it all, Trying to square things.
Some years ago my poetry took on a mythic flavor and I became a character in my own poems, a mage, "the man of the Northern Wall". This apellation is not completely fictional. My middle name is Noordwal, a Dutch term for north wall, though in current Dutch it mainly means north bank as in riverbank. I was told that an ancestor, a Portugese Jew escaping the Inquisition, settled in a small Dutch town and took this name from where he settled, near the north wall of the town. I have thought for a long time that -wal meant wall, think my mother told me that. A linguist might say that my usage is no longer common, is an older usage, but then the Inquisition happened in Portugal a few centuries ago, right around the time the Moors lost control of the Iberian Peninsula and the Jews lost the modest protection given them by Islam. Now I write as this mage, my poetry persona.
Mechanical designer for industry, now retired, once a Bay Area Hippie, went undercover in 1972, I've been writing poetry for years.
Contact: 3topper45@gmail.com
it is our whole notion of perfect that must change and i think it needs to hinge greatly on acceptance.
ReplyDeletefrig! that quote by Emerson, "People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." ain't that the truth! I was thinking yesterday - no matter how far i've come or what major life changes i've made, a great deal of my life remains the same. no matter where i go, there i am! this fits perfectly. it's a little disheartening really, but necessary to learn.
xo
erin
So many in blogland talking about balance of late. Must be something we attend to in Spring...like house cleaning. This sticks in my craw..."We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love." And your words could be my own this very day:
ReplyDeleteI am here again,
Trying to figure it all,
Trying to square things.