Mon 24 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under giving, quote of the day, wealth
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Random quote of the day:
“Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.”
—Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Fri 21 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under contradictions, lies, quote of the day, truth
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Random quote of the day:
“Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the want of contradiction a sign of truth.”
—Blaise Pascal, Pensées (tr. W. F. Trotter, E. P. Dutton, 1958)
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Thu 20 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under paradox, quote of the day, reality, science
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Random quote of the day:
“The ‘paradox’ is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality ‘ought to be.'”
—Richard Feynman, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. III
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Wed 19 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under hatred, love, quote of the day, society
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Random quote of the day:
“Excess in love, indeed the only desirable, belongs to saints. Societies, they exude excess only in hatred. This is why one must preach to them an intransigent moderation.”
—Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Tue 18 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under disasters, hauntings, poetry, ritual
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Last week, thanks to a link provided by asakiyume, I read an absolutely riveting article from the London Review of Books, 6 February 2014: “Ghosts of the Tsunami” by Richard Lloyd Parry. In it, Parry discusses the paranormal experiences had by people after the 2011 tsunami in Japan. He speaks a lot about the difference between “contained” ancestral spirits and the wild or “hungry ghosts” unleashed by natural disaster and also by having their ancestral shrine anchors destroyed by natural disaster. He writes about spirit-ridden people and a spirit-ridden society, survivors guilt, paranormal experiences, and exorcisms. It’s a long article but absolutely worth the read. Very, very moving.
It also reminded me of something I’d read somewhere a long time ago about the hungry ghosts created after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I couldn’t find the specific reference, but I did find a passage in Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton. He speaks of how many of the survivors of the A-bomb blasts were haunted—whether psychologically or spiritually—by hungry ghosts, a literalization of survivors’ guilt. He writes:
“Japanese Buddhist tradition has stressed ‘quick separation of souls from physical bodies’ so that they ‘became ancestral souls, gradually became calm, settled in dwellings in high mountains, and came down to their children’s homes and rice fields on certain occasions.’ These calm and appropriately placed ancestral souls are the antithesis of the homeless dead—of the ‘wild souls’ and ‘hungry ghosts’ whose way of dying, or neglect by survivors, caused them to be denied proper separation from, and continuity with, these same survivors. Significantly, at the annual Bon Festival, the time when visits from ancestral souls are expected, special offerings of food are also put out for anonymous ‘hungry ghosts’ who, it is thought, might otherwise have no one to provide for them—another expression of survivors’ sense of responsibility for their ‘homelessness…’ For the survivor must reject the dead (particularly the newly dead) until he can place them safely within a mode of immortality: in Japanese tradition, permit them to become ancestor souls (or gods); in Christian tradition, immortal souls.”
Similar things were reported in the aftermath of the horrific tsunami which hit Thailand and other spots in the Indian Ocean in 2004. The fear of hungry ghosts kept many Asian tourists away from these spots. Maybe it still is.
EVPs
(On hearing tapes of spontaneously-generated “spirit
voices,” so-called EVPs: Electronic Voice Phenomenon)
The mumbling dead
speak non-sequiturs
as if they have forgotten
language, that thing
which made them most human.
“I came up with Betty;â€
“I went to see the warâ€â€”
one-phrase grooves
clicking on and off
with ancient preoccupations.
Sometimes what they say
freezes in my heart
and turns my lungs cold.
“The soul stays down here,â€
says the voice from the crypt,
and I cannot catch my breath.
Are the souls of the dead
crowding round us even now,
like ekimmu out of Babylon,
jealous of the air we breathe,
hungry for the touch of flesh
they cannot possess?
Then give me oblivion.
If not the golden light,
if not even the fires below,
then I want nothing, nothing.
Anything but wandering feet
which cannot feel the road.
—PJ Thompson
Tue 18 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under angels, conflict, contradictions, jung, quote of the day, what the living do
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Random quote of the day:
“The apparently unendurable conflict is proof of the rightness of your life. A life without inner contradiction is either only half a life or else a life in the Beyond, which is destined only for angels. But God loves human beings more than angels.”
—Carl Jung, Letters, Volume 1
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Mon 17 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under quote of the day, writing
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Random quote of the day:
“It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer.”
—Gerald Brenan, “Writing,†Thoughts in a Dry Season: A Miscellany
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Wed 12 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under quote of the day, travel, writing
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Random quote of the day:
“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.”
—Paul Fussell, “On Travel and Travel Writing,†The Norton Book of Travel
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Tue 11 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under artists, gods, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:
“[God’s] existence had already been proved by the accordion, the landscape and soft words.”
—Tristan Tzara, dada manifesto
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Mon 10 Feb 2014
Posted by PJ under internet, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:
“I don’t know the percentage of the Internet that’s valid, do you? Jesus, it’s scary.”
—Hunter S. Thompson, interview, Atlantic Monthly, August 26, 1997
Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
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