Laura Novak
  • Welcome
  • About
  • NYTs
  • Scribd
  • Murder
  • Clarity
  • Contact

Tao Te Wednesday

10/26/2011

 
Picture
Today's Tao:

Fill your bowl to the brim
and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife
and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.

Verse 9. Tao Te Ching Stephen Mitchell translation.  I also like the Daily-Tao website found HERE

mistah charley, ph.d. link
10/26/2011 07:15:37 am

Laura - you and/or some of your readers, if you are not familiar with the delightful TAO OF POOH by Benjamin Hoff,
might enjoy it.

http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Pooh-Benjamin-Hoff/dp/0140067477/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Tom link
10/26/2011 12:39:13 pm

This stanza from Emily Dickinson is one that I've always enjoyed (and used to explain myself). I remember showing it to my Dad back when I was in college (class of '73). He said "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye.
Much sense, stark madness
'Tis the majority.

And this line from Octavio Paz's 'The Balcony' is one I've held close. I think Andre Dubus III used it to open his novel, 'House of Sand and Fog'.

Beyond myself
Somewhere
I wait for my arrival.

A buddy once told me that I'd better not wait too long.

V ictoria link
10/26/2011 09:44:46 pm

Lovely - and just what I need! Thank you.

Laura Novak
10/27/2011 02:40:08 am

Thanks, Victoria. I liked it too.

And Tom, I really like the Paz quote. That sure was some arrival at the end of House of S & F. Talk about a train wreck. What an amazing book. I recall devouring it. And proof positive that in fiction, things need to get worse and worse for the protagonist.

As for the first quote, I'll have to mull that over. But very interesting. I wonder how you answered your dad?

Tom link
10/27/2011 12:37:13 pm

I'm sure you recall that Emily was thought by contemporaries to be a little mad. She sat by her bedroom window looking out for hours at a time, She may have been agoraphobic. Those words were hers so that context maybe she was defending herself against the perceptions of others. I don't know.

The time for me was probably around 1970. I'd left college as I wasn't adjusting well at all and my grades reflected that. It's a long story that doesn't need told here but I started school early, at age five, was late to puberty and only became comfortable with high school in my senior year. I'm telling way too much.

My Dad and and were generations apart. He was born in 1903. I was born in 1950. You can untuit from there.

I was a long haired, bearded, wild idea-ed young man. My Dad was raised in coal mining camps in western PA. He thought I was nuts. I told him nuts was good. My proof was Emily. He didn't buy it. We never recovered and he died three weeks shy of 91, Dec. 28, 1993, a very long time of not seeing eye to eye (at all) with Dad.

Verbose at the outset, but only one parenthesis, a personal record--sorry.

Tom link
10/27/2011 12:44:24 pm

Regarding the above, I lived in Amherst, MA, Emily's hometown, for a couple of years in the mid 80s and must have walked by her house (it's only a few blocks from the town green) and looked up at her window dozens of times. I never went in and I don't know why.


Comments are closed.

    Laura Novak

    Reporter, Author, Blogger, and Mother...

    Picture

    RSS Feed


    My novel is now on Amazon Kindle!!
    Picture


    Blogs I Read

    Getty Iris
    Cloisters Garden
    Daily Dish
    AlterNet
    Immoral Minority
    Hullabaloo
    Phantomimic
    Jotting Down a Life
    Lynnrockets
    Oakland Local
    Passive Voice
    LitBrit
    Onward
    Joe McGinniss
    Barbara Alfaro
    Suzanne Rosenwasser


    Categories

    All
    Brushes With Greatness
    Dance Number
    Education
    Friday Feature
    Girls On The Bus
    Good Men Project
    Just Sayin
    My Favorite Movie
    Neonatologist
    Private Parts
    Quick Take Tuesday
    Sarah Palin
    Scharlott Stuff
    Scribd
    Shrink Wrap Supreme
    Tao Te Wednesday
    True Confessions
    Vox Populi
    Writing/Publishing

    Picture
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    Picture

    Archives

    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from acidpix, sicamp, Clearly Ambiguous, breahn, hoill, William Arthur Fine Stationery, southerntabitha, *Vintage Fairytale*, NeoGaboX, Dana Moos, ButterflyOrb, ruurmo, MCS@flickr, h.koppdelaney, Andrew 94, MarkWallace, fdecomite, Wonderlane, christophercarfi, dreamsjung, the superash, euphro, melloveschallah, Rhett Sutphin, I Don't Know, Maybe., Harold Laudeus, h.koppdelaney, jennaddenda, Harrissa Sunshine, Wesley Fryer, fidalgo_dennis, bark, [cipher], fdecomite, Marcos Kontze, legends2k, optick, pjohnkeane, Kabacchi, Pink Sherbet Photography, h.koppdelaney, alexbrn, Elsie esq., Rafael Acorsi, naitokz, tiffa130, otisarchives4, Sheloya Mystical and Agrimas Gothic, allygirl520, tnarik, Daquella manera, peyri, Patrick Hoesly, Anderson Mancini, Abode of Chaos, joewcampbell, keepitsurreal, Jonas N, David Boyle, Gideon Burton, evmaiden, Mike Willis, ankakay, LadyDragonflyCC -Busy Wedding Week for BF Amy!, Cast a Line, aeneastudio, Lord Jim, hisperati, dbzoomer, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, thegardenbuzz, kamshots, AleBonvini, smadden, CarbonNYC