Now we deal with those for whom life is but a carnal tomb, in which the darkness holds no power and neither does the final hour.

poet Seamus Heaney:

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,

But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up

And hope and history rhyme,
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.

Believe that a farther shore

Is reachable from here.

maybe next year

I've never known the story behind it before.

A Holy City discussion thought...

lower standards and aspire to principals.

me and you

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.

- Roy Croft

My favourite church ever...

The word of God.
The works of God.
What else do we need?
The people to praise God.
C'est ca.

faith vs. humanity vs. immortality

'There is nothing more terrible than that you lose your faith.'
'Yes there is,' I said. 'You can lose your humanity. That is far more terrible.'
'Fine words, Gideon,' my father said, 'but they mean nothing. You go to America, and that is what they will tell you there. It won't help you when you have to confront your own immortality.'

- Passage from James Robertson's 'The Testament of Gideon Mack'

Happiness

From Postsecret this week.

Poetry and History

The poet and the historian differ not by writing in verse or in prose... The true difference is that one relates what has happened, the other what may happen. Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a higher thing than history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular.

- Aristotle in "Poetics"





[photo from flickr]

blank

sad/happy - delete as appropriate

No-one else can really know how sad or happy you are.

- Proverbs 14.10

be wary of...

'People who claim they are evil are usually no worse than the rest of us.' He sighed. 'It's people who claim that they're good, or anyway better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.

-from Gregory McGuire's 'Wicked'



[photo taken by me somewhere in northern Scotland in 2003]

knowledge

"To know everything is to forgive everything."

- Gautama

the function of man is to live

"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time."

-Jack London

there's no-one left to tell your troubles to

Deb Talan: Comfort



[photo taken by me sometime last year in my bedroom]

this little space inbetween

"I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me, but just this little space inbetween. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed, but who cares, really? The answer must be in the attempt."

-Before Sunrise


[photo taken by me in June 2007, in small cafe in Galway.]