“Meditation always starts with deep breathing and
ends with me adding new people to my enemies list.”— Comedian Laurie Kilmartin,
tweet of Mar. 4, 2015
Friday, November 30, 2018
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Quote of the Day (C.S. Lewis, on Where Heaven Enters)
“Heaven enters wherever Christ enters, even in this
life.” —English novelist, academic, and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis (1898-1963),
Feb. 22, 1944 letter, quoted in The Quotable Lewis, edited by Jerry
Root and Wayne Martindale (2012)
Today would have been the 120th birthday
of C.S. Lewis—who, in addition to
creating the beloved set of fantasy classics The Chronicles of Narnia, also wrote some of the most persuasive
defenses of Christianity published in the last century. (Incidentally, his
death would have attracted far more media attention, except that it occurred on
the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.)
(This post is written for my college friend Greg—who
may be an even bigger fan of Lewis than I am.)
Labels:
C.S. Lewis,
Christianity,
English Literature,
Heaven,
Quote of the Day
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Quote of the Day (Miles Davis, on How He Was ‘Always Thinking About Creating’)
“Nothing is out of the question the way I live my life. I’m always
thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning. That’s
when it starts – when I wake up and see the first light. Then, I’m grateful,
and I can’t wait to wake up, because there’s something to do and try everyday.
Everyday I find something creative to do with my life.” —
American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis (1926-1991) with
Quincy Troupe, Miles: The Autobiography (1990)
Labels:
Creativity,
Jazz,
Miles Davis,
Music,
Quote of the Day
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Photo of the Day: ‘Young Elephant’ Statue, NYC
I came upon this bronze statue by the late Welsh
sculptor Barry Flanagan in the space between 51st and 52nd
Streets, and 7th Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas. It’s one
of those serendipitous finds you come across in Manhattan when you’re trying to
get from one place to another. In any case, it’s enough to put a smile on your
face.
Quote of the Day (Muriel Spark, on a Most Unusual Sunset)
“There was a wonderful sunset across the distant
sky, reflected in the sea, streaked with blood and puffed with avenging purple
and gold as if the end of the world had come without intruding on everyday
life.”—Scottish novelist Muriel Spark (1918-2006), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)
The centennial of her birth has come and gone, but I
couldn’t let 2018 depart without a post about Muriel Spark. She wrote much throughout her career, but—at least
partly due to the 1969 film starring Maggie Smith (pictured here)—The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is her
most famous.
The quote you see here gives a marvelous impression
of her style, but what it cannot do is give a sufficient idea of the treasures
of the novel—very much including its unreliable narrator. For anyone considering
education as a profession, it offers a morally stringent view of how teachers
can form—and, as in this work, deform—the young. And it demonstrates
convincingly that, no matter how the merits of a film (or, in this case, a
play, too), a novel has pleasures unrivaled by visual media.
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