Advice from Jesus

Bush said: “Jesus came into my heart and changed my life.” The gullible will believe this nonsense. It is frightening, pathetic and a sick commentary to think that men running for President of the United States actually believe such fantasy. If they really believed that nonsense in asking for the advice of Jesus, here is what they would find for ‘advice’ in that “word of God”, the bible, in the words of Jesus:

• FAMILY VALUES: “unless you hate your mother and father…your wife and children…you are NO disciple of mine” signed, Jesus Luke 14:26
• DEFENSE: “If someone strikes you on the right cheek…turn the other cheek to him also” signed, Jesus Matthew 5:39
• WELFARE: “give to everyone who begs from you…” signed, Jesus Matthew 5:42
• ECONOMY: “Don’t worry about life…what you are to eat…or about your body, what you are going to wear…life is more than food and clothing” signed, Jesus Luke 12:22
• CHURCH AND STATE SEPARATION: “give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and give to God the things that are God’s” signed, Jesus Mark 12:17
• SCHOOL PRAYER: “whey you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to God in secret” signed, Jesus Matthew 6:6
• PARADING RELIGION: “you hypocrites, the prostitutes will enter heaven before you” signed, Jesus Matthew 21:31

Read more

Paradoxes of life

To make an absolute out of any one system of thought is to imprison the human spirit. Whether a philosophical system or theological, an economic system or morality, whatever the system, it can become a mental concentration camp. No one system has all the truth. Truth is always beyond any one-sided system. Every system is only a fragment, a minute particle, a pebble on the cosmic beach of truth. To make an absolute out of any one system of thought binds us in a strait-jacket.

Why? Because life is paradox. Human beings are a paradox. Life demands that we hold together, in creative tension, what seem to be contradictions. We must continually balance the complementary opposites, the Yin and Yang.

Judgement and mercy…the personal and social…humility and confidence…the contemporary and the timeless…weakness and strength…the old and the new…mind and heart…prudence and carelessness…foolishness and wisdom…faith and doubt…logic and the failures of logic…tension and peace…life and death…love and indifference.
Read more

Writers on writing

I recently read a wonderful interview with Sam Shepard in the New York Times. It brought back memories. His mother was often in the front row of my Sunday Symposiums. You remember of course that Shepard played Chuck Yeager in the movie “The Right Stuff”. What you probably do not know is that Sam Shepard is considered today to be the most important American playwright since Edward Albee.

The interview revealed that he writes in an old, run down, cabin in the woods a short distance from his home. He has almost a contempt for ‘word processors’. He said when he writes he wants “real pages” from his old typewriter that he can hold, and feel, and get to know. His current play “The Late Henry Moss” just opened in San Francisco. It is said to have the greatest assembly of actors ever gathered together on one stage, from Sean Penn to Nick Nolte.

I wondered how many other major writers have no use for ”word processors’. I have over a dozen books about major writers and how they work. I looked through them all to find out how many others felt that way about “real pages”. I discovered that the overwhelming majority have no use for ‘word processors’. A great many prefer writing by hand on a legal pad. John Updike writes in longhand as do Saul Bellow and Pablo Neruda. William Styron said: “I am most comfortable with a no. 2 pencil and yellow sheets, that produce “real pages”. Joyce Carol Oates, a professor at Princeton and winner of the National Book Award, said: “I write in longhand. I gave up word processors forever. They are not for me. They diluted my creativity. It was just shimmering words on a glass screen”.
Read more

Next Page »