Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Day 289 - October 18, 2010
Heard about this memoir on NPR the other day, and I was so intrigued by the author's words on the show that I had to check this book out.
Backing into Forward by Jules Feiffer
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Day 250 - September 9, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Day 129 - May 10, 2010
Some powerful quotes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance-
Stuckness shouldn't be avoided. It's the psychic predecessor of all real understanding. An egoless acceptance of stuckness is a key to an understanding of all Quality, in mechanical work as in other endeavors. It's this understanding of Quality as revealed by stuckness which so often makes self-taught mechanics so superior to institute-trained men who have learned how to handle everything except a new situation.
In each case there's a beautiful way of doing it and an ugly way of doing it, and in arriving at the high-quality, beautiful way of doing it, both an ability to see what "looks good" and an ability to understand the underlying methods to arrive at that "good" are needed. Both classic and romantic understandings of Quality must be combined.
The way to see what looks good and understand the reason it looks good , and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.
Stuckness shouldn't be avoided. It's the psychic predecessor of all real understanding. An egoless acceptance of stuckness is a key to an understanding of all Quality, in mechanical work as in other endeavors. It's this understanding of Quality as revealed by stuckness which so often makes self-taught mechanics so superior to institute-trained men who have learned how to handle everything except a new situation.
In each case there's a beautiful way of doing it and an ugly way of doing it, and in arriving at the high-quality, beautiful way of doing it, both an ability to see what "looks good" and an ability to understand the underlying methods to arrive at that "good" are needed. Both classic and romantic understandings of Quality must be combined.
The way to see what looks good and understand the reason it looks good , and to be at one with this goodness as the work proceeds, is to cultivate an inner quietness, a peace of mind so that goodness can shine through.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Day 9 - January 9, 2010
Saw the movie Invictus. Aside from the uplifting and inspiring message of the movie, I found myself moved by the trials Nelson Mandela suffered and by the fact that as horrible as his circumstances were, he surpassed them. After spending 27 years in prison, having been wrongly convicted, he emerged a better person and forgave those that oppressed him. I looked up the poem by William Ernest Henley, and decided to post it here as a reminder that we are more than our circumstances.
| William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903 |
| Invictus |
| OUT of the night that covers me, | |
| Black as the Pit from pole to pole, | |
| I thank whatever gods may be | |
| For my unconquerable soul. | |
| | |
| In the fell clutch of circumstance | 5 |
| I have not winced nor cried aloud. | |
| Under the bludgeonings of chance | |
| My head is bloody, but unbowed. | |
| | |
| Beyond this place of wrath and tears | |
| Looms but the Horror of the shade, | 10 |
| And yet the menace of the years | |
| Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. | |
| | |
| It matters not how strait the gate, | |
| How charged with punishments the scroll, | |
| I am the master of my fate: | 15 |
| I am the captain of my soul. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)