Category: Wisdom

If I had to say I had a professional mission, I’d argue it was to make plain how well technology, the arts and progressive politics work well together. So I my heart practically burst when I found this poem by Richard Brautigan.

I like to think (and the sooner the better)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think (right now please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.
I like to think (it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

Isn’t that lovely? (via WorldChanging).

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

—Rabindranath Tagore (via The Painting Activist)

“Out beyond ideas of
right doing and wrong doing,
there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.”

—Rumi

(seen in this wonderful movie)

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” —Gustav Flaubert (via Lewis Buzbee)

“A self-made man is about as possible as a self-laid egg” —Mark Twain

“Give all of us gathered here tonight the strength to remember that life is so very fragile. We are all vulnerable and we will all at some point in our lives fall; we will all fall. We must carry this in our hearts…that what we have is special. That it can be taken from us and that when it is taken from us we will be tested…we will be tested to our very souls.” —Friday Night Lights

“I think we are all responsible for discovering what the night holds for us” —Patti Smith (via Fresh Air)

“Saving what you really want to do for retirement is like saving sex for old age” —Warren Buffet

“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living” —Cicero

“If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d
never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be
cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the
time and build your wings on the way down.”

—Ray Bradbury (via Keely)