• The Courage to Let Things Be

    And that’s where the heart of the matter lies—not just in how we read a story, but in how we engage the world itself. Do we approach the world to live with it—or to take it apart in order to dominate it?

  • Ambient

    The sound of the rain filled the apartment. It came in through the open windows. Open just enough to let the cool air in too, without getting anything beyond the window sill wet. Before I sat down to paint, I turned on some music: Brian Eno’s "Reflection."

  • Chaim Potok on Meaning in Life

    “I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of a life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. Do you understand what I am saying? A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one’s life with meaning. That I do not think you understand yet. A life filled with meaning is worthy of rest.…

  • Guardini on the Loss of the Old Plane and Engagement on the New

    On the older plane the battle for living culture has been lost, and we feel the profound helplessness of those who are old. The battle must now be joined on a new plane. Totally technical events and unleashed forces can be mastered only by a new human attitude that is a match for them. We must put mind, spirit, and freedom to work afresh. But we must relate this new effort to the new events, the new manner and style and inner orientation. It must have its living starting point, its fulcrum, where the process itself begins.

  • Lewis on the Invasion of Daily Life by Something Other

    When we suppose the world of daily life to be invaded by something other, we are subjecting either our conception of daily life or our conception of that other, or both, to a new test. We put them together to see how they will react. If it succeeds, we shall come to think, feel, and imagine more accurately, more richly, more attentively either about the world which is invaded or about that which invades it, or about both.