Friday, March 21, 2003

Pomegranate Laughter poem by Rumi, 1207-1273 When you go to buy a pomegranate, pick the one that's laughing, that has its rind cleft, so that through its broken-open-ness you get some information about the seeds. Listen for the laughter that shows the inside, that cracks the casket-shell and lets you see the pearl. There's another kind, an unhappy laughing like the red anemone's that shows its inner blackness. But pomegranate-laughter is blessed, like the companionship of good people. Even if you're a common rock, when you join them, you'll become a precious stone. Keep the love of holy laughing in you. Don't visit sad neighborhoods. Let laughter lead you to the right people. Your body-wantings will take you out of the sunlight into dark and dank places. Feed on the conversation of a lover. Look for spiritual growth from one who is farther along than you. There was once a Christian gospel that had in it some mention of Muhammed, his courage and his fasting. Whenever a group of Christians studied this gospel, they bowed and kissed the words of that passage. Without knowing it, they were looking for refuge inside that light, and with its power it befriended and helped them. Poem by Rumi, 1207-1273 -- Mathnawi, I, 718-733 Version by Coleman Barks "Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion" Threshold Books, 1991 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ [To subscribe to Sunlight, send an email to: sunlight-subscribe@yahoogroups.com 10:32:19 AM    comment []

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Offline today, in protest, in mourning Find someone to make love with Read poetry Play your entire CD collection too loud Hold on to beauty Peace kestrell, crying for the world today 1:50:49 PM    comment []

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Current Read: The persistence of memory Kuberski, Philip. The Persistence of Memory: Organism, Myth, Text. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992. Berkeley University Press has this wonderful digital library. There has seemed something both soothing and sad to reading books this week, a week which brought both war and spring so much closer, after such a long hard winter. I find, in particular, I crave poetry and novels, voices to tell of memory and myth, history and ghosts of ancient queens, to be reminded of what is beautiful and brave and timeless. I recommend Kundera's _Slowness_, or Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," or Pound's anything, even Thoreau's _Walden_. Peace, be still. Watch the stars, but don't let your foot step in the dogcrap on the sidewalk. 8:11:34 AM    comment []

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

On My Wishlist Hey, finally something that is not a book! But what is it? Well, whatever it is, I am certain it will feel right at home with the Surfing Safari Cthulu and the Demonic Bear and the Sorcerer's Apprentice bear and Miss Pumkinhead and Merv Pumkinhead and al the rest of the singing gyrating giggling cast of well, only dozens at the moment, but I hope to build it into my own personal army of goth toys. Sort of a Toys for Goth Tots. 1:35:04 PM    comment []

Book Magazine Here is one of my absolute favorite site: Book Magazine. It is always delightful and adds much to my TOBE (To Be Read) list. This month, there is an article about one of my favorite writers, Elizabeth peters, creator of Amerilia Peabody, that Victorian lady Egyptologist based on the real-life Amelia Edwards, mentioned by Burton (she also wrote, and some of her ghost stories can be found on the Internet). There is also an article about how teenage girls read twice as much as teenage boys. There are many other wonderful things on this Web sit, if you love reading about books, scurry off and read it! 12:07:26 PM    comment []

Current Reads The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt I love this book. The tone is To Kill a Mockingbird meets Harriet the Spy, and Harriet is the name of the twelve-year-old girl who is the main character of the story who is trying to solve a real-life mystery. Harriet decides one summer vacation to find out who killed her brother years before, when Harriet was a baby, and to punish the person. I read a review somewhere which stated the theme of this book is the end of childhood and learning to accept adult authority. What a bunchof hooey! This is a smart girl who will grow up to be a smart woman who will never accept somone else's "authority" above the evidence of her own intellect, and more power to her! I love Harriet, I was harriet, and I dread the battles which are in store for her, but I also know the world needs more Harriets. All the Hely's of the world think so. Tartt possesses an amazing mastery of language, of its simultaneous simplicity and complexity, perhaps because she is working with some intriguing characters. Granted, the rest of the characters had a difficult time getting the spotlight away from Harriet, but Harriet's world is the one which is most fascinating. harriet's world is scarey and thrilling and adventurous and dependent on the whims of adults (who are typically thinking about something else at the time) in teh way only a tweelve-year-old's world can be, all at once and intensely. A lot of reviewers criticized this book, perhaps that is why I love it (Go, Harriet!), but this is the unspoiled female version of Catcher In the Rye, sad and combative and funny all at once. The years With Ross, by James Thurber This is Thurber's take on Ross and the early days of the New Yorker, and it is, if somewhat wandering in chronology and subject matter, also amusing and fascinating in the way Thurber used many correspondences from his time at the New Yorker to reconstruct its history. The descriptions of the battles between editor and writers is timeless, except perhaps in that these battles seem to be conducted with far less wit nowadays. I mean to locate a copy of the "Theory and Practice of Editing at the New Yorker" list which Thurber quotes. My writing professor would appreciate the timelessness of the dearth of good editors. Thurber's book is another excellent example, as is the one avobe, of style and tone. I also just finished a book titled something like Trail of the Amazons. It was somewhat iteresting in teh material it cited, but the author, who is a television film producer, brings some of the less scholarly aspects of television journalism to the book, and it loses much of its focus, especially in the later chapters. I would recommend it as a beginnin, but regard much of the research as opinion and somewhat suspect. The ibliography, however, is far-ranging and quite good. At least, I suspect it is, the recorded books for the blind leave off the bibliographies, which makes me nuts. Books should lead to other books, thus supporting a healthy addiction to the habit of reading. 11:58:35 AM    comment []

Monday, March 17, 2003

A French Fry By Any Other Name Kottke.com has a rant about certain Congressional cafeterias renaming "French fries" to "Freedom fires" in order to slap the hand of those pesky people across the water who won't go along with the game plan. Personally, I think it is just a transparent ploy by a bunch of out-of-shape blowhards to have an excuse to eat more fatty food. Can we call it Freedom dressing, Freedom braids, and Freedom manicures too? The more petty American politicians get, the more I cringe at how much they look like schoolyard bullies in the world's eyes. Why don't they just come out and call "Food Fight!" and we can all toss Freedom fries at the Shrub? I know that would make me feel proud to be an American. 2:53:18 PM    comment []

Blind Bookworm Web Site Updated has been updated, and now includes a Latin and Greek for Blind Students page. I spent the weekend learning Front Page and working on the Web site. I am such a geek. Next weekend, it's umbrella drinks and "A Day With the Triffids, A Night With the Demon." Yes, it is another Terror Twins Production. Basically, it was winter for too long. Today, however, the sun is shining, birds aare singing; I loathe those stupid birds. I wish the crows would come back, they were way cooler. They wear black all the time and have those voices like they smoke too many cigareetes, and whenever the tweety birds get tooo chirpy, the crows always yell "Shuddup already!". Yup, I miss the crows. 11:16:00 AM    comment []

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

World Book Day World Book Day Web site Where was I? Oh yes, I was trying to get home through this impomptyu blizzard in Boston... 7:13:36 AM    comment []

MobyLives.com: More Blogs About Books MobyLives Hey, I didn't even hear about the Post-Modern Pooh book! 7:06:56 AM    comment []

Current Reads Across the Country: Peace On the Page Go team! 6:47:02 AM    comment []

Monday, March 10, 2003

Non Studeo Still reading _Technolopoly_; still hate it. Is 'putz" a word inappropriate to the classroom? It isn't Postman's hysterical alarmist accusations against technology which really make me NUTS. It is his fuzzy grasp of historical facts. 3:40:49 PM    comment []