“Dreams are faithful interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them.” Montaigne, “Of Experience”, Essays (1580-88) “Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?” Lord Tennyson, “The Higher Pantheism” (1869) “We often forget our dreams so speedily: if we cannot catch them as theyContinue reading “To Sleep, Perchance to Dream…”
Author Archives: Frank
Chaos: Where Disorder is the Order of the Day
Listen to a recording of this essay “As the nineteenth century advanced, it gradually dawned on theorists that energy is indestructible. The amount of energy in the universe does not change. However, it can change form, and be converted into some other kind of energy at a fixed rate of exchange.” Jeremy Campbell, Grammatical Man,Continue reading “Chaos: Where Disorder is the Order of the Day”
Something to Write Home About…
“Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery.” Joseph Conrad, A Personal Record (1912) A story is a letter the author writes to himself, to tell himself things he would be unable to discover otherwise.” Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind (2001) “Suddenly I don’t know, haven’t the faintest idea, how peopleContinue reading “Something to Write Home About…”
Reading Between the Lines…
“Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn’t ask what it says but what it means…” Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose “When the first book appeared, Socrates rejected it as inferior to conversation. When the printing press first appeared, some stubbornContinue reading “Reading Between the Lines…”
It’s Just a Matter of Time…
What was God doing before he made heaven and earth? … He was preparing hell for those that would pry into such profound mysteries.” St. Augustine, Confessions, Book XI (AD 399) “There was no ‘before’ the beginning of the universe, because once upon a time, there was no time.” John D. Barrow, The Origin ofContinue reading “It’s Just a Matter of Time…”
Courage Personified
Click to listen to a recording of this essay “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” Nelson Mandela “Courage is the fear you ignore.” Kristin Hannah, The Four Winds “It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.” Aesop, The Wolf and the Kid Life onlyContinue reading “Courage Personified”
When Someone Shows You Who They Are…
“Listen to a man’s words and look at the pupil of his eye. How can a man conceal his character?” Mencius, 4th century BC “The ends of things are always present in their beginnings. T.S. Eliot has of course noted that. But it seems to me that the ends are actually visible in the facesContinue reading “When Someone Shows You Who They Are…”
As Luck Would Have It
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Thomas Jefferson “Things worthwhile generally don’t just happen. Luck is a fact, but should not be a factor. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Negligence orContinue reading “As Luck Would Have It”
Coming of Age
“To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am. Bernard Baruch, News Reports, pg. 0 “And how would he now appear to his younger self?… Perhapsthis was one of the tragedies life plots for us; it is our destinyto become, in old age, what in youth we have most despised.” Julian Barnes,Continue reading “Coming of Age”
Synchronicity: An Addendum
No matter how often I tell myself that chance happenings of this kind occur far more often than we suspect, once we all move, one after the other, along the same roads mapped out for us by our origins and our hopes, my rational mind is nonetheless unable to lay the ghosts of repetition thatContinue reading “Synchronicity: An Addendum”
Resonance 