learning :: on the ceiling :: for everybody
“Prayer does not blind us to the world, but it transforms our vision of the world, and makes us see it, all [people], and all the history of [hu]mankind, in the light of God. To pray “in spirit and in truth” enables us to enter into contact with that infinite love, that inscrutable freedom which is at work behind the complexities and intricacies of human existence.”
Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer
Much like an ice skater controls her rate of spin by pulling in or extending her arms, the cat first tucks in his front legs and splays out his rear legs, allowing him to quickly situate his forequarters with the feet down. He then reverses the procedure, extending his front legs and tucking in the rear legs, allowing the hindquarters to rapidly twist into position while the forequarters turn only slightly. Rear legs re-extend when in place, and he’s fully deployed.
no fear … the cat on these premises has not fallen … is at this moment stretched out at the foot of the bed … yowling for her servant to come scoop her stinky new poop …
Meg Rosoff: adult books for teenagers | Top 10s | Guardian Unlimited Books … some fresh titles … go to the link for comment on each …
1. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
2. Maus by Art Spiegelman
3. Casino Royale and Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
4. Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
5. The Sword in the Stone by TH White
6. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
7. Perfume by Patrick Suskind
8. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
9. Longitude by Dava Sobel
10. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Democracy cannot exist when men prefer ideas and opinions that are fabricated for them. The actions and statements of the citizen must not be mere automatic “reactions”-mere mechanical salutes, gesticulations signifying passive conformity with the dictates of those in power.
“To be truthful, we will have to admit that one cannot expect this to be realized in all the citizens of a democracy. But if it is not realized in a significant proportion of them, democracy ceases to be an objective fact and becomes nothing but an emotionally loaded word.
“What is the situation in the United States today?”
from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Thomas Merton
one should not be online first thing in the morning … a monday morning after a sunday at school … we had our open house yesterday and we each had a job … mine was to sit with our illustrious department chair at a table in the cafeteria … beneath a plastic sign … ENGLISH … a first for me …
to sit and speak with any who wandered past … with any who had questions … there were a few … and our illustrious d. c. handled them affably while i contributed around the edges … drank a little coffee … processed a few student papers … sampled some dessert … and chatted with our illustrious d. c. …
and now it’s monday morning … and rain prevents a walk …
classes today … AP will have finished reading Twelfth Night and composed a question about it … AmLit will have read a short passage from Moby Dick and finished their response (channeling me) to a “parent letter” complaining about Poe’s place in the curriculum … but what … then what … something …
still raining … rising from the south
i like the internet because there are goofy smart projects like this … The Complete Incomplete Hypothetical Sufjan Discography.
just playing around with Spell with flickr …
now back to the paper parade … here on this very gray saturday afternoon
lately i’ve been eating a banana for breakfast because that’s all the time i’ve had … for breakfast … just a bananasecond …then i eat cereal after period c … get it? period c? … cereal … after period b … banana …
