To be

The roses under my window make no reference to former roses or better ones; they are what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Start today, now show us how you feel

Make your way, it's time to choose

Have my say, I know, I know what I see

Have my say, they think you'll lose

For all this to mean so much to me

For all this, you make a move

Pass you by, it's all in this life you have

Pass you by, goodbye to you

1, 2, 3, 4 Move

If you don't stop there, you'll make it through.

Stop dreaming, start something

When it's in your hand just start anew

It's okay to use your ability

You must know, it's hard to choose

Time will tell, it's hard that the way you feel

means you always seem to lose

Seize the day, the one that you left behind

It seems so strange that you don't move

Frozen still in front of your own lights

Win or lose, its time to choose

1, 2, 3, 4 Move

If you don't stop there, you'll make it through.

Stop dreaming, start something

When it's in your hand just start anew

The Simple Life

Today is the first day of fall and Bilbo and Frodo's birthday.  The combination of the two make this one of my favorite days, and a little introspective, so here are two thoughts for your day:

And yet less thanks have we than you. Travellers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. "Strider" I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that would freeze his heart or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise. If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be kept secret to keep them so.  

--Aragorn, The Council of Elrond, FotR 

"The 22nd day of September, in the year 1400, by Shire-reckoning. Bag End, Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, West Farthing, the Shire, Middle-earth. The Third Age of this world. 

'There and Back Again: a Hobbit's Tale' by Bilbo Baggins. Chapter One: Concerning Hobbits. 

Hobbits have been living and farming in the four Farthings of the Shire for many hundreds of years, quite content to ignore and be ignored by the world of the Big Folk. Middle-earth being, after all, full of strange creatures beyond count, Hobbits must seem of little importance, being neither renowned as great warriors, or counted among the very wise. 

In fact, it has been remarked by some that Hobbits only real passion is for food. A rather unfair observation, as we have also developed a keen interest in the brewing of ales, and the smoking of pipe-weed. But where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet and good-tilled earth. For all Hobbits share a love of things that grow.  

And yes, no doubt to others, our ways seem quaint. But today of all days, it is brought home to me: It is not bad thing to celebrate a simple life." 

        - Introduction to Hobbits, spoken\written by Bilbo (Special Edition,  "Concerning Hobbits")

That Rings True

I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it: we must search for fragments, splinters, toenails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resuscitating the body and soul. It may be that we are doomed, that there is no hope for us, any of us, but if that is so then let us set up a last agonizing, bloodcurdling howl, a screech of defiance, a war whoop! Away with lamentation! Away with elegies and dirges! Away with biographies and histories, and libraries and museums! Let the dead eat the dead. Let us living ones dance about the rim of thecrater, a last expiring dance. But a dance! 
--Henry Miller

Everywhere we look, complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes.

Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all

-Vincent Van Gogh

The New Media

Last week the Oxford English Dictionary announced it would no longer be printed again.  I have never used the OED in person and, like apparently countless others, find the on-line version much more convenient and less straining on the eyes (unlike the print version you do not need a magnifying glass to make out the on-line version).

On the one hand this heralds some new and )mostly) positive advancements.  More people have access to the internet, either in their homes or in libraries and schools, and the vast amount of information that goes along with it.  Also, the English language now changes at a rate that makes printing a dictionary illogical because of how soon it would become obsolete.

However, I always have found the printed page of these huge old books and the physical presence of reference sections comforting.  You do not get the sense of the immense history of these words and the tradition you are inheriting when you are not pulling a 30 lb. book off the shelf.  You do not get the same sense of the interconnectedness of language when you cannot scan down a page and see a list of words which all come from the same root.  You cannot leisurely flip through the pages, looking for nothing in particular but knowing there are treasures on every page.   Our use of the dictionary will now be subject to the same forces as the rest of modern technology-it will be economical, purpose driven, and isolating.

As an interesting side note, the reason I was a week late in commenting on this story is because I was having computer problems last week and so was without regular access to a computer all week.  A printed book also cannot have problems with its motherboard leaving you without access.

Ennui

Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.
Sylvia Plath