Friday, November 16, 2012

Failing and Flying


 
by Jack Gilbert

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was 
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars 
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say 
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Language and humanity

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.

 

Amy Tan

 

Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world.

 

Hélder Câmara

 

Start or join the conversation for today's communique on the Emergent Village Facebook Page

Donation requests without PayPay = FAIL!

There are a great many worthy causes that I would gladly support if only they would except PayPal.  Here is a great example: Toby Keith's initiative to fund critical USO functions...

Please allow us to use the currency of this new technological age.  I would be willing to bet that the first 10 PayPal contributions would cover the cost of implementation.  I betcha I can find a wagering site that would give me odds and take my PayPal payment.

. . .