Still Gravity

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. This is the first line of "Desiderata", a Latin word that means "things desired".  Max Ehrmann  wrote the prose poem in the 1920s. Originally published untitled, it became popular in the 60s and 70s for good reasons.  Check it  here .

The TSA officer at the checkpoint observed the man carefully. The guy in the crowded line was unshaved, his clothes muddy, and carried an old and dirty backpack. Something was suspicious. The clever guard took him to a room for questioning and he was the last passenger to board the plane.  Bad day for a tired hiker traveling in the times of September 11.

What's a message? What's language? What's communication?   There is an old and rare book that tries to explain. Its name is  The Medium is the Massage  -  the link to Amazon is affiliate. You read it right: "the massage". Apparently, this was caused by a typo and the authors loved it, or so it's said.  The authors were Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore, and Jerome Angel. This "message massage" was a product of the 1960s, but it has prophetic ideas that hold true in our times.  Some excerpts.  "Time" has ceased, "space" has vanished. We now live in a global village… a simultaneous happening. We shifted our attention from action to reaction. As soon as information is acquired, it’s very rapidly replaced by still newer information. The living room has become a voting room. Everything is changing – You, your family, your neighborhood, your education, your job, your government, your relation to "the others". We look to the pres

Some Cubans fought in the American Civil War. The most notable was Colonel Ambrosio José González, the highest-ranking Cuban that served in the war. He was the Chief of artillery of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida for the Confederate Army.  Previously, González joined  Narciso López  in his expeditions to liberate Cuba from Spain. He was shot in a leg, and it's said that became the first Cuban to shed blood fighting for the independence of the island.  After the failed incursion in Cuba, he became an American citizen Some links on this topic.   Latin American Studies,  Cubans in the U.S. Civil War War History Online,  The Cuban Confederate Colonel Entry in  Wikipedia . 

A philosopher? A mystic? Pick one or the two - Learn about this guy  here .  Here we go with four quotes from Gurdjieff.  1- About emotional responses.  Until you stop being governed by your emotions you cannot be impartial. 2- About not living in the present.  The man who has the disease of tomorrow is the most unfortunate man in the world. 3- About knowledge and the masses.  The crowd neither wants nor seeks knowledge, and the leaders of the crowd, in their own interests, try to strengthen its fear and dislike of everything new and unknown. 4- About the future.  Man is becoming a willing slave. He no longer needs chains. He begins to grow fond of his slavery, to be proud of it. Was Gurdjieff, right?

Sufism is an island of love and mysticism in Islam. It's mostly known from the works of Rumi, the Muslim author of the 13th century - in our age of YouTube, probably better known from the videos of the whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi Order.  Love is a constant in Sufism, and this explains the abundance of poets. Some examples follow. From  Bibi Hayati Kermani : Love resides in us, a treasure locked into the heart’s hidden vault. From Rabia of Basra : In love, nothing exists between heart and heart. From Rumi : Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.

She met the sun at the exit of the interstate, right by the traffic light.  Slowly, she walked back and for through a wall of car fumes. A hastily written sign in her hand, "Homeless. Need food".  Nobody gave a shit. Neither gave money.  She went to the sidewalk and took something from her backpack. Removed her baseball cap, her long shiny hair breathed loose and felt to her hip. The painful combing began.