The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion
people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and
sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.
-Ray Bradbury, science-fiction writer (1920- )
Some things I know hard,
the way a tree
near timberline
believes the wind.
Some things I know easy,
the way long grass
meets autumn
and says yes.
William Stafford
If you came home and you found a strange man... teaching your kids to punch each
other, or trying to sell them all kinds of products, you'd kick him right
out of the house, but here you are; you come in and the TV is on, and you
don't think twice about it.
-Jerome Singer
This is loving the self
loving loving
being love by loving
and being loved by the Way.
Isn't this the same as
loving a mountain
loving a person
loving you
loving the self.
My love for you
Is you
Your love for me
Is me.
This is so not only for love
but for all activity.
This is so not only for sentient beings
but the ten thousand things.
I love you.
John Daido Loori
I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.
-John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer(1819-1900)
Tending our fire in the oil drum, we felt
that second earthquake begin. Near dawn it was,
when everything stills. To be safe, we had
slept in a field. We felt a long slow wave
in the earth. It wasn't the stars that moved, but ourselves,
in time to a dance the dead could feel. Our fire
stirred where it cooled. Sparks whirled up.
Crawling along by a breath at a time, we tried to
get low; we tried to sight across level earth
near dawn and let the time tell us about how
to be alive in the grass, the miles, the strangeness,
with only the sun looking back from the other end of light.
We moved out as far as we could. "Forever," we thought,
"if we breathe too hard it will all be gone."
We spread our arms out wide on the ground
and held still. We set out for that cave we knew
above a stream, where early sunlight reaches
far back, willows all around, and clams in the river
for the taking. And we prayed for that steady event
we had loved so long without knowing it, our greatest
possession—the world when it didn't move.
William Stafford
Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.
-Martin Luther King Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)
