Garden Cycles

September 2, 2023 11:27pm

Reading Chekhov’s “Ward Six” on the barn porch tonight, I watched the last slanting rays creep up the trunks while receding from the darkness that pursued. Finally, only the top leaves were illuminated by the golden light that accented the coming of autumn.

I rose to water the late corn that is very dry this time of year. The frost may get it anyway before it matures but I don’t want this experimental crop to fail for lack of water.

The translator of “Ward Six” writes in the introduction about the story’s effect on the young Lenin who, he says, “felt so oppressed by it,” that he had the feeling that he was condemned to Ward Six himself. Andrew MacAndrew goes on to speculate that “Ward Six was the symbol of the regime he (Lenin) was later to overthrow.”

In the garden, I poured the water at the base of the thirsty, young corn, and added a little to the Black Cherry tomatoes that I love. We have cut down the first corn crop to use for fall decorations on the barn posts, so the garden looks bare in spots. Along with the corn, we’ve harvested all the potatoes, some tomato cages are gone, the squash, cabbage and zucchini are too.

I stood in the once verdant garden observing the few clouds lingering before nightfall and thought of the seasons and cycles that order our lives. They will continue until they stop.

Lena Olin

September 7, 2023 10:18am

I became a Lena Olin fan after seeing “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” in the late 80’s. Although I recall little of the film, the existential themes resonated and remain with me. I just ran across a couple of quotes from Lena Olin that I have held onto for years. These led me back to the book upon which the movie was based. I didn’t know that Author Milan Kundera was so disappointed with the film that he allowed no further adaptation of any of his works. So….it appears I must read the book!

Lena Olin also appeared in the film “Night Train to Lisbon” which is a very good adaptation of the book by Pascal Mercier. I can recommend both the book and the movie.

Olin’s quotes:

“I want to show that from the negative, when you dare to see it, the positive is born, because there is the root to the good. I have inside myself, for example, a sharp aggression. But if you remove it, I lose my creativity. I have a great insecurity, but if you remove it, I also lose my sensitivity. Good theater is the theater that can make it a little attractive, a bit cool, to have these dark inner depths. You must be a bit afraid of them. I have a big need of spending time being alone, just to fear these dark sides. We must have secrets. That’s why I almost never agree, or rarely, to really personal interviews: you must have large pools, untouched inside yourself.” – Lena Olin (on acting, theater and her interest in playing dark women roles on stage and in films)

“There are no patterns that lasts a lifetime. Some people can’t stand the floating borders. They decide on one life philosophy and live thereafter. But I’ve decided not to decide. I don’t know everything. I don’t understand everything. Both my own and others’ reactions are often a mystery to me. I let it be that way, hoping that maybe, instead, I can learn to understand the pattern of no patterns.” -Lena Olin (on life, people and relationships)

Was Napoleon the “Most Complete” human?

September 21, 2023 10:58am

Today’s exercise: make a list of the “most complete” people that you personally know. What qualities do you use to arrive at this group? Is it intelligence, kindness, beauty, athleticism, politics, spirituality, common sense, tolerance, convictions, honesty…no matter – whatever criteria you use, how close do the folks on your list come to the ideal? Some historians claim that Napoleon was the most “complete” person in the history of the earth. Do any on your list rival him? Are your friends and family moving in those circles? Now, the big question: would any of the people on your list include YOU on THEIR list?

We would all like to think that our acquaintances hold us in as high esteem as we hold ourselves, right? Which brings us back to the concept of ego and its role in our inner lives – our thinking, which is, in the end where living really occurs.

I’m reading a book of selections of Nietzsche titled, “The Portable Nietzsche.” In “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense,” he writes of knowledge, “….only its owner gives it such importance as if the world pivoted around it.”

He follows with this, “…. just as every porter wants an admirer, the proudest human being, the philosopher, thinks that he sees the eyes of the universe telescopically focused from all sides on his actions and thoughts.”

I see signs that we are all philosophers since pride is ubiquitous and all want the admiration of our fellow humans.

Nietzsche continues: “The intellect, as a means for the preservation of the individual, unfolds its chief powers in simulation….in man this art of simulation reaches its peak….here deception, flattery, lying and cheating ….acting a role before others and before oneself – in short the constant fluttering around the single flame of vanity is so much the rule and the law that almost nothing is more incomprehensible than how an honest and pure urge for truth could make its appearance among men. They are deeply immersed in illusions and dream images. ” – Friedrich Nietzsche.

The Greek philosophers advised us to “know theyself” but for many this is seemingly impossible. Wittgenstein wrote, “Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving ourselves. ” And Cioran says, “Each of us believes, quite unconsciously, of course, that we alone pursue the truth, which the rest are incapable of seeking out and unworthy of attaining. This madness is so deep-rooted and so useful that it is impossible to realize what would become of each of us if it were some day to disappear.” – Emil Cioran.

Poor humans – their egos build the prisons in which they are locked for all eternity. So much for Greek advice.

Adams

September 24 2023 12:22pm

Geez….I realize I’m on a roll with these quotes lately! But having just stumbled upon this saved Adams gem, I figured I’d better post it before I lose it again.

John Adams on democracy and human vanity……

“I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.” – John Adams