A Great Fire [Justin]

I'm reading a biography of Thomas Edison by Edmund Morris. 

On December 9th, 1914, a great fire engulfed thirteen buildings across more than half the complex of Edison, Inc. I found it very interesting how Thomas Edison reacted, especially given our closing of 2020 and entrance into 2021.

He joined the crowd of townspeople watching and said, "'Get Mother and her friends over here,' he said to Charles[his son]. 'They'll never see a fire like this again.'"

Later, near the end of the flames, he said, "Yes, Maxwell, a big fortune has gone up in flames tonight, but isn't it a beautiful sight?"

After learning insurance would cover less than a third of the damages, he "radiated energy and excitement as he rose to the challenge of full recovery in the new year. 'I am sixty-seven....I've been through a lot of things like this. It protects a man from being afflicted with ennui.'"

From the Book I'm Rereading [by Mark]

 

Word of the Day: Apokatastasis

Allen Ginsberg: …The conditions of revolution in late twentieth century are conditions unforeseen by any other civilization. We are going to the moon, we have drugs that go to the moon inside, we’ve recovered the archaic knowledges of the Australian aborigines, most primitive societies are available to us if we take the effort, many different forms of magic warfare or peacefare are available, apocalypse, classical Armageddon, destruction of the planet, millennium, all this is a possibility. So it’s now unlike it’s ever been in history, this should mellow everybody out and make it possible for everybody to work together, to create a revolution that has no enemies, a revolution by apokatastasis.

Interviewer: What do you mean exactly?

Questionnaire by Marcel Proust [via Mark]

 

• What do you consider your greatest achievement?
• What is your idea of perfect happiness?
• What is your current state of mind?
• What is your favorite occupation?
• What is your most treasured possession?
• What or who is the greatest love of your life?
• What is your favorite journey?
• What is your most marked characteristic?
• When and where were you the happiest?
• What is it that you most dislike?
• What is your greatest fear?
• What is your greatest extravagance?
• Which living person do you most despise?
• What is your greatest regret?
• Which talent would you most like to have?
• Where would you like to live?
• What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
• What is the quality you most like in a man?
• What is the quality you most like in a woman?
• What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
• What is the trait you most deplore in others?
• What do you most value in your friends?
• Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
• Whose are your heroes in real life?
• Which living person do you most admire?
• What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
• On what occasions do you lie?
• Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
• If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
• What are your favorite names?
• How would you like to die?
• If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
• What is your motto?

Birthing [by Mark]

As I was driving in the Central West End this afternoon, I realized that I had not asked a friend to do a Share the Wealth with us this weekend.   Then,  knowing that Christmas is this Friday, I happened to remember a passage from spiritual theologian Matthew Fox’s  introduction to Meister Eckhart, a medieval Catholic mystic and preacher.   Upon coming home, I looked in Fox’s book and found the passage—

“What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself?  And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace?  What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his/her Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture?  This, then, is the fullness of time:  When the Son of God is begotten in us.”

This birthing theme has been on my mind recently because I’ve had the good fortune to Zoom with four dear friends, all in their thirties, all doctors, who are now raising very young children—Neil Munjal and Neeta Shenai, and their daughter Gia (born this summer),  as well as Matt Miller,  Nima Sheth, and their son, Moksha (born September 2019).

Here are a couple more selections from Meister Eckart for your reflection—

“People ought to think less about what they should do and more about what they are.  For when people and their ways are good, then their works shine forth brightly.  If you are just, then your works are also just.  Works do not sanctify  us — but we are to sanctify our works.  Holiness is based on being, not on a single action.  If you wish to explore the goodness of actions, explore first the nature of the ground of the works.”

“The seed of God is in us.  Now the seed of a pear tree grows into a pear tree; and a hazel seed grows into a hazel tree; a seed of God grows into God.”

Documenting Life [Wendy]

Does anyone else keep a Bullet Journal? I've been doing this practice fairly consistently for nearly two years now. I've found it especially useful this year. Each day, I jot down a few bullets about things that happened that day. Ideas that struck me, bits of moments that I wish to remember, or the most mundane things like what I made for dinner. Sometimes, I'll go a week or more at a time without doing it, but I almost always make it a point to go back and jot down some points. 

In 2020, I find myself having a really hard time recalling things that take place even just a few days ago. When I find a slight sense of anxiety when I don't write down what happened each day, as if that day somehow didn't happen. I don't usually go back to read my Bullet Journal, other than when I digitize it, I may glance at a few bullets for nostalgia's sake. Yet, I like the certainty of having written down things that are happening in life, as some sort of proof, or insurance for my memory. 

Curious if anyone feels similarly about journaling or the mere act of documenting the ordinary happenings of daily life. Also if anyone feels that 2020 is hard to keep track of, and each day flees and memory seems to fade in an instant?? What a strange year, just a week left!  

A Poem That’s Been On My Mind Today

 This poem, by Marisa Crane, has been stuck in my head all day, so of course I have to share it with you all:

WHO IS THE BOY & WHO IS THE GIRL?

So glad you asked.  I am the great

White shark & she is the brilliant

Octopus & you are just as near-sighted

As the man on the street

Who complimented my muscular arms

Then reassured me that

I still look like a woman.

Listen, I sink my sharp teeth into the meat

Of her ass.  Her tentacles touch me in places

I hadn’t known existed.  It is a dual act

Of delicious discovery, & it is

None of your fucking business.

Hold It All [by Mark]

 

It must have been 1983, springtime: I asked former classmate Ray Pruitt what he’d been reading: “Last night, Kierkegaard, Proust, and Phil Berrigan.”

Phil and Dan Berrigan, Catonsville action, May 1968