There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
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Polanyi on Tradition and Authority
To learn by example is to submit to authority. You follow your master because you trust his manner of doing things even when you cannot analyze and account in detail for its effectiveness. By watching the master and emulating his efforts in the presence of his example, the apprentice unconsciously picks up the rules of the art, including those which are not explicitly known to the master himself. These hidden rules can be assimilated only by a person who surrenders himself to that extent uncritically to the imitation of another. A society which wants to preserve a fund of personal knowledge must submit to tradition.
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Wonder, Love, and Mushrooms
That is a surprising progression — from mushrooms to meaning, but it is possible because all things are united by their ultimate cause. The thoughts we draw from reality are like the fruiting bodies of a vast interconnected “network of being.” Beyond this, the Christian encounters reality not merely as “being” but also as a created order — an order that is, as Gerard Manely Hopkins puts it, “charged with the grandeur of God.” The inky cap mushrooms along my favorite walking path owe their existence to a creator. This gives my interactions with them a truly personal dimension. God is the giver. They are gifts. And I am the…
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Buechner and Miracles
"When you get right down to it, dear, you see, people don't want miracles." "But that's what they do want," I said. "Get the rumor started that a statue of the Virgin's nose has started to run, and within twenty-four hours people will be lined up six deep." Brownie said, "Little miracles, yes. People will flock to little ones like that the way they would flock to a magic show. But you take a real miracle, like resurrection — nobody wants those kind, dear, because they make it so you've got to believe whether you want to or not." "You're crazy," I said. "That's just the kind people do want."…
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Camus on Truth
At the end of life, a man notices that he has spent years becoming sure of a single truth. But a single truth, if it is obvious, is enough to guide an existence.
