anybody who’s
educated can write but
reading’s like breathing
“There are editors who will always feel guilty that they aren’t writers,” he explained. “I can write perfectly well — anybody who’s educated can write perfectly well. It’s very, very hard, and I just don’t like the activity. Whereas reading is like breathing.”
From the obit, Robert Gottlieb, Eminent Editor From le Carré to Clinton, Dies at 92 by Robert D. McFadden in the New York Times
they do not observe
walk blindly without trying
to see for themselves
For Flag Day … 2023
I painted the flag series after we went into the war. There was that Preparedness Day, and I looked up the avenue and saw these wonderful flags waving, and I painted the series of flag pictures after that.
I was always interested in the movements of humanity in the street… There is nothing so interesting to me as people. I am never tired of observing them in everyday life, as they hurry through the streets on business or saunter down the promenade on pleasure.
The man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of everyday life around him.
The portrait of a city, you see, is in a way like the portrait of a person… The spirt, that’s what counts, and one should strive to portray the soul of a city with the same care as the soul of a sitter.
These small shows were decidedly a success. The exhibitions were not too large to be seen easily. It was not an effort, as larger collections of pictures usually are.
The true impressionism is realism. So many people do not observe. They take the ready-made axioms laid down by others, and walk blindly in a rut without trying to see for themselves.
Childe Hassam on himself.
once ready to write
words flowed hands thinking, not a …
conscious process
“When you write something down you pretty well kill it,” he said. “Leave it loose and knocking around up there and you never know — it might turn into something.”
Once he was ready to write, he said, the words flowed.
“My hands do the thinking,” he said. “It is not a conscious process”
From Early Cormac McCarthy Interviews Rediscovered by Elizabeth A. Harris.
Elizabeth A. Harris writes about books and publishing for The Times.
Cormac McCarthy, the formidable and reclusive writer of Appalachia and the American Southwest, whose raggedly ornate early novels about misfits and grotesques gave way to the lush taciturnity of “All the Pretty Horses” and the apocalyptic minimalism of “The Road,” died on Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 89.
the awe that feels good
found in moments of wonder
and humility
Awe, Dr. Keltner explained, is that complex emotion we experience when encountering something so vast that our sense of self recedes.
It can be positive or negative (like the feelings that come from witnessing violence or death), but the awe that feels good is the type found in moments of wonder and humility.
From This Kind of Walk Is Much More Than a Workout by By Jancee Dunn.
Ms. Dunn writes:
This week, we’re exploring “awe walks,” outdoor rambles designed to cultivate a sense of amazement.
Jancee Dunn is the columnist for Well’s subscriber-only newsletter at The New York Times. She writes longer features as well, and spearheads special projects for the desk. Her work has appeared in many sections across The Times.
The idea for a walk with awe or a walk in awe brought to mind a Mary Oliver poem that my sister Lisa sent to me.
Gethsemane by Mary Oliver
The grass never sleeps.
Or the roses.
Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.
Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.
The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,
and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,
and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.
Jesus said, wait with me. And maybe the stars did, maybe the wind wound itself
into a silver tree, and didn’t move, maybe
the lake far away, where once he walked as on a
blue pavement,
lay still and waited, wild awake.
Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not
keep that vigil, how they must have wept,
so utterly human, knowing this too
must be a part of the story.
I have quoted this line before, but I like it so much.
As Alice Walker writes in her book The Color Purple,
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”
share, with dignity
society culture that
values live, let live
This country — this whole region — will thrive only if these four women can share the same beachfront promenade with dignity, in a society and culture that values live and let live.
Everyone is just too intertwined now for anything else.
But live and let live takes work and the right leadership, whether it comes from heads of government or next-door neighbors.
From From Tel Aviv to Riyadh By Thomas L. Friedm
Live and let live takes work and the right leadership.
Whether it comes from heads of government …
or next-door neighbors.
No Haiku For You 