Saturday, February 21, 2009

Open Thread

song chart memes
more music charts

(Decided to go with a GraphJam image in honor of Daughter having a math competition in the morning.)

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Smile

video

When the song in this video segment started, I was wondering if my heart would ever smile again since my dear wife passed away. But thinking of Jackie always made me smile. You'll see it on the right side of the screen. Just watch the peaks nearest to the rectangular control panel.

Subway Serenade

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The night sea journey

I've started reading Dark Nights of the Soul, by Thomas Moore. I was really struck by this particular metaphor, and thought I'd share it tonight...

A dark night of the soul may feel amorphous, having no meaning, shape, or direction. It helps to have images for it and to know that people have gone through this experience and have survived it. The great stories and myths of many cultures also help by providing an imagination of human struggle that inspires and offers insight. One ancient story that sheds light on the dark night is the tale of the hero swallowed by a huge fish. The hero, or better, antihero - he is the victim of circumstances - simply sits in the bowels of the fish as it carries him through the water. Because the story is associated with the sun setting in the west and traveling underwater to the east to rise in the morning, this theme is sometimes called the "Night Sea Journey." It is a cosmic passage taken as a metaphor for our own dark nights, when we are trapped in a mood or by external circumstances and can do little but sit and wait for liberation.

Imagine that your dark mood, or the external source of your suffering, is a large, living container in which you are held captive. But this container is moving, getting somewhere, taking you to where you need to go. You may not like the situation you're in, but it would help if you imagined it constructively. Maybe at this very minute you are on a night sea journey of your own.

I think that understanding may be a helpful one for me right now. I don't know if it "speaks" to anyone else, but like I said, I just felt like sharing it.

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