On the cusp of season 2, I was ruminating on how I might introduce the tonality of this series of conversations. The September musing jumped to mind. In this musing, I reflected one some words to live by according to Ralph Waldo Emerson And there was one Emerson line that stuck to my ribs. No matter how hard I scraped, it would not leave me alone. “Nothing great is ever accomplished without enthusiasm.” Not cheerleader or car salesman enthusiasm. But enthusiasm as the fire within, the fire blazing the passions of being and becoming. In the resonance of this enthusiasm …
Author: Swanson
Your Work Should Be the Praise of What You Love (September Musing)
Thu, May 15, 2014 at 9:03 AM Fellas, I finished the Emerson bio, and thought i should share his philosophy of life. It is strange that he doesn’t mention friendship, since he consistently talked about its value and joy in his life. The days are gods. That is, everything is divine. Creation is continuous. There is no other world; this one is all there is. Every day is the day of judgment. The purpose of life is individual self-cultivation, self-expression, and fulfillment. Poetry liberates. Thought is also free. The powers of the soul are commensurate with its needs; each new …
Like People or Dogs
These four words prove that all you need is an opening lick on a whetstone. “Like people or dogs” Four words, that’s it. That is all it takes to sharpen a razor’s edge and shave the ordinary. I will share the entirety of the poem that starts “Like people or dogs”, but to set that up, a brief rambling on how Jesus of Nazareth taught me the value of a poetic whetstone. In the rabbinical tradition that Jesus participated in, a teacher would speak the opening lines of a Psalm and his students would recite the rest from memory. A teacher’s spoken cue to a lesson …