Thursday, April 28, 2011

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 56

A strange fellow here
Writes me: 'That man, how dearly ever parted,
How much in having, or without or in,
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection;
As when his virtues shining upon others
Heat them and they retort that heat again
To the first giver.


Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida Act 3 scene 3











Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Jesus is Risen - ترنيمة: المسيح قام

At lunch today Kathleen and I were talking about the people of Lebanon. My departed wife Liz was Lebanese and her family retains many ties to that troubled land. When I got home, I saw the link to this marvelous video from Beirut, posted by my dear friend Athos at Four Mass'keteers. What a hope-filled video it is.

If you go to the YouTube version (click below), you can use the up-arrow on the lower right and click on CC for the translation.

Monday, April 25, 2011

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 55

Alexander the Great and the emulation of the Homeric heroes











Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter - Oh, first to her...

OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST OUR LORD
OF HIS FIRST APPARITION

- St. Ignatius Loyola

He appeared to the Virgin Mary. This, although it is not said in Scripture, is included in saying that "He appeared to many others", because Scripture supposes that we have understanding, as it is written: "Are you also without understanding?"


The Quieting of Mary with the Resurrected One

What they felt then: is it not
above all other mysteries the sweetest
and yet still earthly:
when he, pale from the grave,
his burdens laid down, went to her:
risen in all places.
Oh, first to her. How they
inexpressibly began to heal.
Yes heal: that simple. They felt no need
to touch each other strongly.
He placed his hand, which next
would be eternal, for scarcely
a second on her womanly shoulder.
And they began
quietly as trees in spring
in infinite simultaneity
their season
of ultimate communing.


- Rainer Maria Rilke

Friday, April 22, 2011

Good Friday

From The Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot

East Coker

IV

The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That quesions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant care is not to please
But to remind us of our, and Adam's curse,
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood-
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Saturday, April 16, 2011

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 53



Alexander of Macedonia
the world's first famous person...












Tuesday, April 12, 2011

from the Archives: Famished Craving Pt 52

Jules Feiffer again:
Ever since I was a little kid, I didn't want to be me. I wanted to be like Billy Whitteton, and Billy didn't even like me. I walked like he walked; I talked liked he talked. I signed up for the same high school he signed up for, which was when Billy Whittleton changed. He began to hang out around with Herbie Vanderman. He walked like Herbie Vanderman; he talked like Herbie Vanderman. And it dawned on me that Herbie Vanderman walked and talked like Joey Hamerlin. And Joey Hamerlin walked and talked like Corky Fabinson. So here I am, walking and talking like Billy Whittleton's imitation of Herbie Vanderman's version of Joey Hamelin trying to walk and talk like Corky Fabinson. And who do you think Corky Fabinson is always walking and talking like? Of all people, dopey Kenny Wellington-that little pest who walks and talks like me!












Saturday, April 09, 2011

Gil Bailie at DSPT April 13th....

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 51

God is absent, said Johann Christian Hölderlin; God is dead, said Nietzsche. This means one of two things. Either we have outgrown monotheism, and good riddance; or modern man is estranged from being, from his own being, from the being of other creatures in the world, from transcendent being. He has lost something – what, he does not know; he knows only that he is sick unto death with the loss of it. - Walker Percy













Walker Percy's book, Signposts in a Strange Land, quoted in this excerpt:

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 50

"Ever since I was a little kid I didn't want to be me..." - Jules Feiffer











Sunday, April 03, 2011

from the Archives: Famished Craving - Part 49

The democratization of fame...Andy Warhol's 15 minutes