Peace

Quote - You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting

 

"You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn’t see exactly where or how
to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse
than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the
next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others,
when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You
don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of
your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of
doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that
restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

 

An excerpt from

They Thought They Were Free

The Germans, 1933-45

Milton Mayer

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html

Poem - For the Fallen

 

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Poem - In Flanders Fields

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved and were loved, and now we lie
      In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
      In Flanders fields.

 

Quote - "So hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge"

Seamus Heaney On Suffering, Self-healing, and Hope for a Great Sea Change

 

 

To mark Joe Biden's President-elect status, RTE put together a piece on his history and voiced by him reading an excerpt from the Seamus Heaney poem “The Cure at Troy” written in 1991 - his version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes written in the fifth century BC. 

As though Heaney wrote it for this exact time as we navigate a mighty sea-change.

Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.

History says, don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.

Quote - "My mission is to seek beauty, find humour, and bring joy"

“My mission is to seek beauty, find humour, and bring joy.”

As I spoke that aloud, I woke up.

It was as if a huge stone had rolled off my chest.

I had a mission statement!

Who knew, now that my hair’s turned white, to finally have a mission statement?  Let alone such a mission!

So simple, so delightful to fulfill. One that is not transactional; that does not include commodification. 

Your sea change has stimulated a sea change in me.

“Whither leads the voyage?

Quote - Today Is The Tomorrow You Worried About Yesterday, And All Is Well

Today is the Tomorrow you Worried about Yesterday and All is Well
- attributed to Dale Carnegie

 

Seen on a wooden plaque repaired on BBC The Repair Shop

BBC iPlayer - The Repair Shop - 60-Minute Versions: Episode 19

Wood wizard Will Kirk repairs a hand-carved wooden plaque, the remarkable work of Carol Bolton’s father, in 1937 when he was just 12 years old

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007znp/the-repair-shop-60minute-versions-episode-19

Quote - Men who find themselves in receipt of unasked-for luck become either benign, believing themselves unworthy, or dangerous

 

I did not know him before his rush to power, but
what I saw in him then was a man overhorsed by the glory
fate had handed him, riding by sheer force of will, knowing
he must be thrown sometime, and that it would hurt.

In my experience, men who find themselves in receipt of
unasked-for luck become either benign, believing themselves
unworthy, or dangerous, believing everyone else sees them as
unfit.

 

An excerpt from

27 October 2017 - This Winter Palace clock was stopped 100yrs ago when Bolsheviks seized power - started again

via https://twitter.com/paleofuture/status/898585002169966592

May the shadow of the moon fall on a world at peace

via https://twitter.com/paleofuture/status/898585002169966592

 


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