2008 May archive at Glittering Muse

Archive for May, 2008

Photos of decorations from my recital

Published May 7th, 2008 in Culture, Fun Stuff and Personal. 1 Comment

I gave a recital of two great Mozart works at my home last Sunday, May 4th. Several good friends and colleagues joined me to play the Clarinet Trio and the Clarinet Quintet, both masterworks.

I decided to decorate my home with flowers, some cut from neighbors bushes and some from the store. Below are the photos. I love the way the scene with the white lilacs holds together with all the curly patterns in the Chinese art and the sculptures on the wall and on the table. The smaller bouquet of purple flowers is Wisteria cut from my own yard. The scent of lilacs and wisteria filled the house.

The sunflowers were on sale at the grocery store, and I think they look FAB in the cobalt vase on the mantle, like something out of a Georgia Okeefe painting.

Unbearable Lightness

Published May 4th, 2008 in Humanism, Deep Thoughts, Inspiration and Culture. 2 Comments

Some of you may have noticed that I altered my blog header photo. I added the words “Unbearable Lightness” in script across the middle of the mystical looking woodland scene. (That photo is from Hocking Hills, Ohio, an area 40 miles south of flat Columbus. The region is hilly, unusual for Ohio. Th natural limestone hollows in the area, resembling caves, have been a tourist attraction since the mid 1800’s. Those beautiful natural formations exudes a magical feel. American Indians used many of the caves as meeting places for their enhanced acoustics.)

I read Milan Kundera’s book Unbearable Lightness of Being in the 1980’s. I’ve always loved the title and the book itself was a revelation for me. It’s message, that life’s mysterious existence and our even more inexplicable awareness of it, reminded me of Buddhist awareness of the power of the present moment. Yet Kundera embellishes the emotionality of being in the present, how excruciatingly poignant life can be both in its sadness and joy.

It all passes, the joy and the pain, as do we ourselves. How better to describe that terrifying and beautiful feeling, the emotional openness of being in the present moment no matter how desperately we my wish to get away from it, than with the phrase “unbearable lightness”? The irony of the phrase delivers the appropriate impact of such a powerful sense of aliveness.

So my blog is now un-officialy titled “Unbearable Lightness“.

Glitter Meanderings

Integrity recognizes itself.–
The power of the inability to learn a lesson is the multiplier of the cost to fix it.–
The ego is a useful vehicle, if you get to know the driver.

Those are from Bradisms. Brad regularly expounds on various subjects ranging from politics to trust to caring to love, all with an inimitable style which can only be described as “pithy”, meaning tersely cogent. He also has a webpage featuring a collection of his best work, also worth visiting. Brad recently commented on my post Truth and Being, where I attempt to summarize large patterns in life, and which I almost deleted because of its intractable pithiness. But Brad seemed to understand my obscure logic. Then I found this post, “Life is…” on his website, and realized I think a lot like him. Yet he allows himself much more freedom in the realm of pithiness than I! Thanks Brad, for showing us how playfully rich truth can be.

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David Depape has a blog he cleverly calls “God is Love“. I’m sure he intends those words’ various echoes of meaning, from completely ironic to absolutely and literally true.

His voice is as subtle and complex as the title. He is neither religious nor atheist. The hypocrisies of organized religion get no mercy from him, but nor do rabid atheists. Somehow he finds inspiration in the ambiguous truth of neither/nor.

Take his post, The Religion of Science.

Religion is a form of stagnant science. Christianity is based on science. The priests were the scholars and scientists or their day. They observed the world and came up with a theory of existence based upon what they could observe. They didn’t know about atoms, cells and the quantum level. They came up with the best theory they could with what little they knew. Religion is science that got stuck on proving old theories. Now atheism is doing the same. Atheism is stuck on proving a point and it’s clinging to theories that are becoming antiquated in the face of new discoveries.
Instead of admitting what we know and admitting what we don’t know and moving forward from there.

I think you’ll find his views as refreshing as I did.

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I enjoy finding blogs (sort of) similar to mine. It’s taken me awhile to find my niche; a peculiar blend of personal experience, spiritual advice, philosophical explorations, poetry, gardening, food and general inspiration. Yesterday someone named Titus-Armand commented on my site, so I checked out his blog, Project Armannd. I was pleasantly surprised to fine a quality blog, one which isn’t prepackaged to a particular audience as so many are these days. He explores a variety of subjects toward living a better life; “about today’s society, issues of today’s world, tips on self-improvement, spiritual advices, inner peace, general psychology, happiness, and some other things…” The topics he chooses are intriguing and unique, like the psychological meaning of certain eye movements. But he doesn’t just report. He interprets. I like that. Welcome Titus-Armand (TA?). I like your style.

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What a great blog name: The Green Atheist. I popped over there after a search for posts tagged “humanism” and found a clean, clear and well written blog. The head article today is a bullet list of the Principals of Humanism. Thank goodness humanism is catching on again. The founding fathers of the USA would be proud!

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