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
Showing posts with label MANALIVE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MANALIVE. Show all posts
27 September 2010
10 May 2010
I'm Alive at Last
“ To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." --Oscar Wilde
19 November 2009
The Rhyme of the Restless Ones
We couldn’t sit and study for the law;
The stagnation of a bank we couldn’t stand;
For our riot blood was surging,
And we didn’t need much urging
To excitements and excesses that are banned.
So we took to wine and drink and other things,
And the devil in us struggled to be free;
Til our friends rose up in wrath,
And they pointed out the path,
And they paid our debts and packed us o’er the sea.
Oh, they shook us off and shipped us o’er the foam,
To the larger lands that lure a man to roam;
And we took the chance they gave,
Of a far and foreign grave,
And we bade good-bye forevermore to home.
And some of us are climbing on the peak,
And some of us are camping on the plain,
By pine and palm you’ll find us,
With never claim to bind us,
By track and trail you’ll meet us once again.
We are fated serfs to freedom – sky and sea;
We have failed where slummy cities overflow;
But the stranger ways of Earth
Know our pride and worth,
And we go into the dark as fighters go.
Yes, we go into the night as brave men go,
Though our faces they be often streaked with woe;
Yet we’re hard as cats to kill,
And our hearts are reckless still,
And we’ve danced with death a dozen times or so.
And you’ll find us in Alaska after gold,
And you’ll find us herding cattle in the south.
We like strong drink and fun,
And, when the race is run,
We often die with curses in our mouth.
We are wild as colts unbroken, but never mean.
Of our sins we’ve shoulders broad to bear the blame;
But we’ll never stay in town
And we’ll never settle down,
And we’ll never have an object or an aim.
No, there’s that in us that time can never tame;
And life will always seem a careless game;
And they’d better far forget –
Those who say they love us yet –
Forget, blot out with bitterness our name.--Robert W. Service
The stagnation of a bank we couldn’t stand;
For our riot blood was surging,
And we didn’t need much urging
To excitements and excesses that are banned.
So we took to wine and drink and other things,
And the devil in us struggled to be free;
Til our friends rose up in wrath,
And they pointed out the path,
And they paid our debts and packed us o’er the sea.
Oh, they shook us off and shipped us o’er the foam,
To the larger lands that lure a man to roam;
And we took the chance they gave,
Of a far and foreign grave,
And we bade good-bye forevermore to home.
And some of us are climbing on the peak,
And some of us are camping on the plain,
By pine and palm you’ll find us,
With never claim to bind us,
By track and trail you’ll meet us once again.
We are fated serfs to freedom – sky and sea;
We have failed where slummy cities overflow;
But the stranger ways of Earth
Know our pride and worth,
And we go into the dark as fighters go.
Yes, we go into the night as brave men go,
Though our faces they be often streaked with woe;
Yet we’re hard as cats to kill,
And our hearts are reckless still,
And we’ve danced with death a dozen times or so.
And you’ll find us in Alaska after gold,
And you’ll find us herding cattle in the south.
We like strong drink and fun,
And, when the race is run,
We often die with curses in our mouth.
We are wild as colts unbroken, but never mean.
Of our sins we’ve shoulders broad to bear the blame;
But we’ll never stay in town
And we’ll never settle down,
And we’ll never have an object or an aim.
No, there’s that in us that time can never tame;
And life will always seem a careless game;
And they’d better far forget –
Those who say they love us yet –
Forget, blot out with bitterness our name.--Robert W. Service
01 October 2009
22 September 2009
02 September 2009
What about Everything?
MANALIVE, the Glory of God is Man Fully alive, live--these are phrases we keep throwing around. But what does it mean to be fully alive. Some people believe that this means to live, life on the edge, always moving, chasing the next adrenaline rush. Yet, to be fully alive can mean the exact opposite for to be truly alive means to be contemplating the eternal. this then will influence how you see and react with the world, allow you to view it with wonder and thanks and see it with a fresh perspective. This need not require a degree in philosophy, just an orientation towards truth and a willingness to question and to ponder. Yet this is something sadly lacking in todays world, which is not prone to introspection.
Josef Pieper says In Defense of Philosophy, "People are not commonly disposed, as they are simply not in the appropriate mood, to reflect on the ultimate meaning of reality as such. As a rule, therefore, we should obviously not expect that the philosophical experience and the philosophical quest would be such a common occurrence. ‘How is it with the world as such?’—this is not a question one asks while building a house, while going to court, while taking an exam. We cannot philosophize as long as our interest remains absorbed by the active pursuit of goals, when the ‘lens’ of our soul is focused on a clearly circumscribed sector, on an objective here and now, on things that are presently ‘needed’—and explicitly on anything else. (In intelligent company one can, of course, readily and always discuss any philosophical ‘problem’ tossed to it from the outside like a question on a quiz show. This is not what I am talking about. Here, I understand the philosophical quest as an existential experienced centered in the core of the human mind, a spontaneous, urgent, inescapable stirring of a person’s innermost life.) More likely than not, therefore, a challenge is required that shakes the common and ‘normal’ attitude dominating—by nature and by right—man’s everyday life; a push is needed, a shock, in order to trigger the question that reaches beyond the sphere of mere material needs, the question as to the meaning of the world and of existence: to trigger the philosophical process.”
Josef Pieper says In Defense of Philosophy, "People are not commonly disposed, as they are simply not in the appropriate mood, to reflect on the ultimate meaning of reality as such. As a rule, therefore, we should obviously not expect that the philosophical experience and the philosophical quest would be such a common occurrence. ‘How is it with the world as such?’—this is not a question one asks while building a house, while going to court, while taking an exam. We cannot philosophize as long as our interest remains absorbed by the active pursuit of goals, when the ‘lens’ of our soul is focused on a clearly circumscribed sector, on an objective here and now, on things that are presently ‘needed’—and explicitly on anything else. (In intelligent company one can, of course, readily and always discuss any philosophical ‘problem’ tossed to it from the outside like a question on a quiz show. This is not what I am talking about. Here, I understand the philosophical quest as an existential experienced centered in the core of the human mind, a spontaneous, urgent, inescapable stirring of a person’s innermost life.) More likely than not, therefore, a challenge is required that shakes the common and ‘normal’ attitude dominating—by nature and by right—man’s everyday life; a push is needed, a shock, in order to trigger the question that reaches beyond the sphere of mere material needs, the question as to the meaning of the world and of existence: to trigger the philosophical process.”
26 August 2009
Power and Glory
“The glory of God is man fully alive" This quote from St. Irenaeus is beautiful, profound and very often misunderstood. It is not permission to do what you like, whatever feels right. Rather it is a challenge, one seen more clearly if you look at the not as often quoted second half of the statement, "moreover man’s life is the vision of God." We are only fully alive when we are fulfilling the plan God has set forth for us.
This plan, this imperative to live, becomes even more crucial when one considers that our lives, that the world is a gift. As the most recent papal encyclical says;
Charity in truth places man before the astonishing experience of gift. Gratuitousness is present in our lives in many different forms, which often go unrecognized because of a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life. The human being is made for gift, which expresses and makes present his transcendent dimension. Sometimes modern man is wrongly convinced that he is the sole author of himself, his life and society. . . Gift by its nature goes beyond merit, its rule is that of superabundance (Paragraph 34).
By living God's plan for us we are participating in and giving thanks for the the gift of our life and the universe. But more important being alive, truly living and fulfilling God's plan for us is an act of love and an act of worship.
22 June 2009
STILL WANDERING
I walk these streets where my soulless feet
Haunt the ground where it was I once tread
On Grafton's Arcade pours the rich commerce rain
Though the voices I no longer hear speak
Heaven's to blame so on that I'll abstain
Best clean the church from my cracked fingernail
But don't let me die still wondering
What it was I left behind
From God's golden plate begrudgers they eat
Till their belly's burst ignorance bliss
Never they roam a wanderless home
Is as far as their sorry eye sees
Give me a rusty ol' goat well trampled and soaked
Until these ashes abd blood mingle deep
But don't let me die still wondering
What it was I left behind
Though I've been that face before
Slammed every open door
Squandered once scattered beliefs
So when the waves come crashin' in
I'll swim as the ocean swims
Out with the morning tide
Then back for my tea
So I'll do as I please like the well-tempered breeze
Blowin' which way I see fit
I'll grey with the clay seven days till the day
When they throw me on the potter's scrap heap
But take my advice; you'll have to bury me twice
Cause the first time I won't rest easily
But don't let die still wondering
What it was I left behind
So don't let die still wondering
What it was I left behind
I want a race well run ahead of the gun
With a dance before the far finish line
So no life long regrets, only well feathered steps
Until these shoes I can longer shine
But don't let me die still wanderin'
For the love I left behind
18 June 2009
28 May 2009
The Case for Working with your Hands
From today's NY Times:
If actions have the power to form habits, if repeated actions form our selves, then what type of people is our modern workforce making? Fight Club, The Office, Dilbert, Wanted--all have commented on the soul crushing nature of the cubicle. Yet not everyone can become motorcycle repairmen and not everyone is willing to start a small family farm. How then is integrity and dignity returned to work?
A good job requires a field of action where you can put your best capacities to work and see an effect in the world. Academic credentials do not guarantee this. Nor can big business or big government — those idols of the right and the left — reliably secure such work for us. Everyone is rightly concerned about economic growth on the one hand or unemployment and wages on the other, but the character of work doesn’t figure much in political debate. Labor unions address important concerns like workplace safety and family leave, and management looks for greater efficiency, but on the nature of the job itself, the dominant political and economic paradigms are mute. Yet work forms us, and deforms us, with broad public consequences.
If actions have the power to form habits, if repeated actions form our selves, then what type of people is our modern workforce making? Fight Club, The Office, Dilbert, Wanted--all have commented on the soul crushing nature of the cubicle. Yet not everyone can become motorcycle repairmen and not everyone is willing to start a small family farm. How then is integrity and dignity returned to work?
02 February 2009
And there's this burning, like theres always been
"I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can."--Neil's journal
16 October 2008
MANALIVE
Is it so great a thing to be alive? After being asked this question my immediate response was: Yes!
Not simply surviving, but living is one of the greatest challenges. Every day we must face this same difficulty and every day we must both accept it and rejoice in it. We have but one life in this world, let us live it. It is the way in which we live, it is the prospect of treating each inconvenience rightly, treating them as an adventure.
"I don't want to survive, I want to live!" The Captain in Wall-E says this remark to Auto when Auto is telling him that they will survive in space. The captain has seen this world's wonders and its beauty and he wants to live, he wants to experience these wonders, to see these beauties first hand. He doesn't want to survive, he wants to live, he wants to be alive. This mere line makes this movie astounding, but the fact that an animated film, meant for children can have such a incredible message, brings up the fact that people do care about other people in this world. It gives credit to there being persons in this world who want to spread joy. And one of the things which will allow people to enjoy living, which will allow people to love being alive, is for people to take each day as it comes, and as Neil Gaiman puts it, to leave no path untaken.
In Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book the same point about living is made. Bod, a boy raised in a graveyard, is told by his guardian Silas "you're alive, Bod. That means you have infinitepotential. You can do anything, dream anything. If you change the world the world will change. Potential. Once your dead, its gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished." As Gaiman so poetically phrased when we are alive in this world then we can do anything. When we are alive we must be alive, not simply walk though this life, but live our life to the fullest. "Every man dies, not every man truly lives. " (William Wallace, Braveheart)
And finally, G.K. Chesterton's MANALIVE, one of the most profound books which I have ever read, deals almost entirely on this subject. But I am by no means capable of giving a justifying summary, nor will I attempt to pick out a quote that exemplifies my point in a book where every line is profound. I will only say to read it, and live your life.
MANALIVE.
Not simply surviving, but living is one of the greatest challenges. Every day we must face this same difficulty and every day we must both accept it and rejoice in it. We have but one life in this world, let us live it. It is the way in which we live, it is the prospect of treating each inconvenience rightly, treating them as an adventure.
"I don't want to survive, I want to live!" The Captain in Wall-E says this remark to Auto when Auto is telling him that they will survive in space. The captain has seen this world's wonders and its beauty and he wants to live, he wants to experience these wonders, to see these beauties first hand. He doesn't want to survive, he wants to live, he wants to be alive. This mere line makes this movie astounding, but the fact that an animated film, meant for children can have such a incredible message, brings up the fact that people do care about other people in this world. It gives credit to there being persons in this world who want to spread joy. And one of the things which will allow people to enjoy living, which will allow people to love being alive, is for people to take each day as it comes, and as Neil Gaiman puts it, to leave no path untaken.
In Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book the same point about living is made. Bod, a boy raised in a graveyard, is told by his guardian Silas "you're alive, Bod. That means you have infinitepotential. You can do anything, dream anything. If you change the world the world will change. Potential. Once your dead, its gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished." As Gaiman so poetically phrased when we are alive in this world then we can do anything. When we are alive we must be alive, not simply walk though this life, but live our life to the fullest. "Every man dies, not every man truly lives. " (William Wallace, Braveheart)
And finally, G.K. Chesterton's MANALIVE, one of the most profound books which I have ever read, deals almost entirely on this subject. But I am by no means capable of giving a justifying summary, nor will I attempt to pick out a quote that exemplifies my point in a book where every line is profound. I will only say to read it, and live your life.
MANALIVE.
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