Beautiful, Samuél. Sharing this where I have the broadest reach. (PS Félicitations on selling out the first edition of The Requisitions. Onward and upward indeed!)
Thank you Janet. I shall read it out loud from the rooftops with my loudspeaker. I'm listening to Miles this morning, in fact. He always knows how to bring beauty to my world.
it reminds me of maybe my favorite James Baldwin quote: "We ought to try, by the example of our own lives, to prove that life is love and wonder and that that nation is doomed which penalizes those of its citizens who recognize and rejoice in this fact.”
I don't know what happened to us, esp here in America. Slow madness of a sort reflected in ALL of our leadership. Optimism is not in fashion. One of the stupidest sayings I've every heard "if you're not outraged you're not paying attention" is in vogue. You're supposed to maintain a high degree of constant outrage, anger and contempt for everyone who disagrees with you in the name of tolerance and compassion, apparently. Glad you see the irony. I think a silent and commonsensical majority agrees. We keep going.
Slow madness, indeed. I woke up this morning to see that Labour has won a massive victory in Britain. There's hope yet. I think there's something to be said about the constant interaction with devices and forming of opinions in split seconds on the YouTubes and Netflixes and Instagrams of the world ... tolerance and patience for alternative visions is low these days, but the silent, commonsensical amongst us keep working. And there's beauty in that.
I proud myself of being an optimist and sometimes it seems completely delusional...
But your post reached me as l've just qrrived in Paris, and this nice little serendipity encourages me to stay true to my natural positive outlook and to put art back to its central place when it comes to stay human. I resolve to find a nice exhibition to see this weekend and dwell in it.
Very encouraging Samuel and so right too. Artists and optimism are vital to comment on the times we live in and to set out ways of living to inspire others.
Perfectly timed for the 4th of July when I tend to get caught in a fit of despair witnessing so much celebration of a deeply problematic country. Thank you for the uplifting reminders of artistic brilliance amongst the darkness. Truly the optimism I, and so many others, need to be reminded of!
it’s funny I didn’t even think about the connection to July 4 until I posted it! I like to think that in the end, most people are decent and really just want something to be happy about. When it becomes about flag waving it’s a bummer, but there are plenty of redeeming qualities of the ole USA, not the least the fact that as United Statesians, we still have a dream of being able to seek a better life
Your phrase "the pendulum swing of history" is so important to keep in mind. It visualizes to me the masses rushing to follow the latest sturm and drang headline, then turning swiftly to the next one with overwrought drama, like passengers on a ship rocking side to side, the people sloshing from one edge to the other. I have lived with the Cuban missile crisis & being told to hide under our school desks to escape the fallout; with the assassinations you noted, plus JFK's; with the Vietnam war where my drafted brother went for a year and where we couldn't communicate with him for months since there was no email/internet; with witnessing 9/11; and experiencing so many follow-on wars. And now our current messes about the world. But I just opened my new book ("Contemporary Art Underground") on the art that the New York MTA has installed all throughout it's system over the years - beautiful, varied, exuberant and generously placed throughout the system. It gives the daily riders a bit of hope and joy to take with them on their way. Art is that thing that binds us together so we see the folly of our divisions and another possible path to take.
I absolutely love the image of passengers on a ship, sliding from stern to bow, locked in a nauseous embrace. Beautiful, haunting image (I'm currently reading Albert Camus' travel diaries, which were just translated into English, and his descriptions of long boat journeys are fascinating).
It's always a good reminder to me to hear perspectives like yours, about how much more intense--in some respects, at least--life was in different eras when legitimate fears of nuclear apocalypse were inculcated into classrooms ... what a world. "Contemporary Art Underground" sounds like a book that's right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation.
Samuél, You joyfully bring to mind Ferlinghetti's 1958 poem "I am waiting" (copied here). Congrats on THE REQUISITIONS!! The story continues to stay with me all these months later. . .❤️
A wonderful reminder this morning. I love the Baldwin quotation. As Anne Lamott wrote: “Today, I do not have a single interesting theological insight, but I can tell you one thing for sure: goodness and karma bat last. In the meantime, left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe.”
Thank you for resharing this. A needed read. We will continue to find beauty. It is going to be a rough few years. I’m trying to hold tight to the heart and think of things my hands can do. Might be time to actually learn how to garden.
Gardening is a beautiful idea. It was good enough for Voltaire after his Candide traveled the world. I agree, the next few years are going to be rough. It reminds me of how lucky so many of us are/have been to expect that years shouldn't be rough.
Beautiful, Samuél. Sharing this where I have the broadest reach. (PS Félicitations on selling out the first edition of The Requisitions. Onward and upward indeed!)
Thank you Janet. I shall read it out loud from the rooftops with my loudspeaker. I'm listening to Miles this morning, in fact. He always knows how to bring beauty to my world.
Well-said.
Really hope things go well for all.
it reminds me of maybe my favorite James Baldwin quote: "We ought to try, by the example of our own lives, to prove that life is love and wonder and that that nation is doomed which penalizes those of its citizens who recognize and rejoice in this fact.”
That’s a lovely quotation.
Thank you for instilling hope in us all
Thanks for reading Audrey. Remembering how to find the beauty in all of the ugliness is really the key it seems to me.
Beautiful! What an amazing way to express it.
Thank you friend! Plaisir de te voir ici sur Substack
Hello old friend! I'm with you.
I don't know what happened to us, esp here in America. Slow madness of a sort reflected in ALL of our leadership. Optimism is not in fashion. One of the stupidest sayings I've every heard "if you're not outraged you're not paying attention" is in vogue. You're supposed to maintain a high degree of constant outrage, anger and contempt for everyone who disagrees with you in the name of tolerance and compassion, apparently. Glad you see the irony. I think a silent and commonsensical majority agrees. We keep going.
Happy Independence Day.
Slow madness, indeed. I woke up this morning to see that Labour has won a massive victory in Britain. There's hope yet. I think there's something to be said about the constant interaction with devices and forming of opinions in split seconds on the YouTubes and Netflixes and Instagrams of the world ... tolerance and patience for alternative visions is low these days, but the silent, commonsensical amongst us keep working. And there's beauty in that.
Big congratulations 🍾 on your book!
Thank you friend. Let's see if it can't find its way out onto a few hundred--or why not thousand--bookshelves. A novelist can dream.
MUST dream!
I proud myself of being an optimist and sometimes it seems completely delusional...
But your post reached me as l've just qrrived in Paris, and this nice little serendipity encourages me to stay true to my natural positive outlook and to put art back to its central place when it comes to stay human. I resolve to find a nice exhibition to see this weekend and dwell in it.
Thanks
Ah that’s so nice to hear 🙏🏼and bienvenue! I highly recommend the Paolo Riverside photography exhibit in Palais Galleria … it’s seriously inspiring
Very encouraging Samuel and so right too. Artists and optimism are vital to comment on the times we live in and to set out ways of living to inspire others.
They’ve never failed to make me feel better on a rough day. Especially Jerry Seinfeld or Chet Baker.
Perfectly timed for the 4th of July when I tend to get caught in a fit of despair witnessing so much celebration of a deeply problematic country. Thank you for the uplifting reminders of artistic brilliance amongst the darkness. Truly the optimism I, and so many others, need to be reminded of!
it’s funny I didn’t even think about the connection to July 4 until I posted it! I like to think that in the end, most people are decent and really just want something to be happy about. When it becomes about flag waving it’s a bummer, but there are plenty of redeeming qualities of the ole USA, not the least the fact that as United Statesians, we still have a dream of being able to seek a better life
Your phrase "the pendulum swing of history" is so important to keep in mind. It visualizes to me the masses rushing to follow the latest sturm and drang headline, then turning swiftly to the next one with overwrought drama, like passengers on a ship rocking side to side, the people sloshing from one edge to the other. I have lived with the Cuban missile crisis & being told to hide under our school desks to escape the fallout; with the assassinations you noted, plus JFK's; with the Vietnam war where my drafted brother went for a year and where we couldn't communicate with him for months since there was no email/internet; with witnessing 9/11; and experiencing so many follow-on wars. And now our current messes about the world. But I just opened my new book ("Contemporary Art Underground") on the art that the New York MTA has installed all throughout it's system over the years - beautiful, varied, exuberant and generously placed throughout the system. It gives the daily riders a bit of hope and joy to take with them on their way. Art is that thing that binds us together so we see the folly of our divisions and another possible path to take.
I absolutely love the image of passengers on a ship, sliding from stern to bow, locked in a nauseous embrace. Beautiful, haunting image (I'm currently reading Albert Camus' travel diaries, which were just translated into English, and his descriptions of long boat journeys are fascinating).
It's always a good reminder to me to hear perspectives like yours, about how much more intense--in some respects, at least--life was in different eras when legitimate fears of nuclear apocalypse were inculcated into classrooms ... what a world. "Contemporary Art Underground" sounds like a book that's right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation.
💜
Samuél, You joyfully bring to mind Ferlinghetti's 1958 poem "I am waiting" (copied here). Congrats on THE REQUISITIONS!! The story continues to stay with me all these months later. . .❤️
I Am Waiting
BY LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am awaiting retribution
for what America did
to Tom Sawyer
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth’s dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “I Am Waiting” from A Coney Island of the Mind. Copyright © 1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation, www.wwnorton.com/nd/welcome.htm.
Source: These Are My Rivers: New and Selected Poems (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1993)
COLLECTION
Beautifully said. Thank you!
A wonderful reminder this morning. I love the Baldwin quotation. As Anne Lamott wrote: “Today, I do not have a single interesting theological insight, but I can tell you one thing for sure: goodness and karma bat last. In the meantime, left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe.”
Thank you for resharing this. A needed read. We will continue to find beauty. It is going to be a rough few years. I’m trying to hold tight to the heart and think of things my hands can do. Might be time to actually learn how to garden.
Gardening is a beautiful idea. It was good enough for Voltaire after his Candide traveled the world. I agree, the next few years are going to be rough. It reminds me of how lucky so many of us are/have been to expect that years shouldn't be rough.
Yes, I thought this today too.