Beautiful. Yesterday I found a scrap of paper with a quote I liked on it. I forgot to note the origin and author, sadly, but it is obviously a review of a book on Voltaire. The scrap reads: "But Raffel is wrong, surely, in thinking that by cultivating one's garden Voltaire meant anything save cultivating one's garden. By 'garden' Voltaire meant a garden, not a field--not the land and task to which we are chained by nature but the better place we build by love. He knew that the flood would get your garden no matter what you did; but you could at least try to keep the priests and the policemen off the grass. It wasn't enough, but it was something."
Beautiful essay. Inspirational on a Sunday morning.
Posted by semiot at July 22, 2007 07:07 AMYes, thank your Paradox. "Time began in a garden," as my garden clock states.
Posted by Judith at July 22, 2007 09:03 AMIf only the we would allow peace to promote peace. it works so well, but for the interference of war
if you do not find this place, you will never know what it is most important to protect, and what your values truly are. For the 95% that rely on temporary technology to survive, realize what you can lose so suddenly, and that only you care that it's gone.
best find a community that won't be destroyed by the vacuum created by the lack of infrastructure, and lack of care by our government for our own citizens. we might want to consider putting people first. how bizarre.
Just a change of pace from all the turmoil we face each day.
Planted two Butterfly bushes today, because I like butterflies, and one has befriended me.
My Dad died a couple of years ago in the early spring. He was such a lovely man who was blessed with a sweet spirit and gentle heart. As spring became summer that year, I would spend hours in my garden. My Dad loved gardening, so naturally I felt closer to him while tending to my small but wonderful garden. That first summer a lone white butterfly appeared and stayed all summer with me in my garden. I immediately realized in my spirit that Dad had sent the white butterfly to let me know he was with me, and to please not be sad. That was seven summers ago, and each spring that same one white butterfly appears in my garden to renew my faith that he is with me and to remind me of how much he loves me.
For those who enjoy inspirational stories:
http://butterflywebsite.com/discover/stories.cfm
Sounds like a real dream! But dreams have no real meaning these days.
Posted by phidipides at July 22, 2007 10:14 AM"...an absurd but still accepted gringo notion I could "own" part of the earth..." (paradox)
Beautiful. A deeply serious piece of work that let's the reader sense what lies behind your sensitive perception.
"...technology horror that could only happen in America."
-(paradox)
Yes.
Somehow this made me think of those new techno wondrous killer drone planes they have in Iraq spewing missile fire like giant fireflies moving through the night...
Posted by Jill Bains at July 22, 2007 10:46 AMWhere to begin? This, paradox, is clearly one of your most incoherent postings.
Let us start here:
"...an absurd but still accepted gringo notion I could “own” part of the earth..."
How so is it such an absurd notion? Bought and paid for. I am sure that many of the poor south of the border would very much appreciate clear title to the lands that they farm and live on: property rights is the single largest contributor to the reduction of poverty that capitalism can provide.
Let us continue:
"It is not an avenue, whatever it is it’s six lanes of two-way traffic with shoulder parking and even a merge lane right in the middle."
And along that ribbon of pavement came the materials to build your house. The brick, wood, mortar, and even the "...the cool $80 power roller attachment..." that you employ " spray paint interior doors and then paint the rest of the house...," 9how wonderful are petro-chemical products!) not to mention all of the other goods and services that you purchase. (Also, consider the "trauma that would occur without the "merge lane.")
Without the avenue, how were these products made available for you to purchase? And, just as an aside, what means of transport did you employ to travel to the location where [not just] the spray-painting device was purchased. May I trust that it was a sustainable, non-polluting- non-using-of-the-road-and-highway-systems-type-of-locamotion...can you flap your arms and fly?
Once more into the breach:
"... I often wonder how I could have possibly earned this..."
Unless you are the recipient of inhereted wealth, I assume that you worked for it. The sweat of your brow and all of that.
And,
"... but there is still time to wrest initiative from the insanity of our behavior in Iraq...."
I think I am suffering from whiplash at this point: one of your most incoherrant postings.
But, hey, this country gave you the opportunity to have such a a place that [you so] "...fiercely love my little place, this is where I’m supposed to be."
I congratulate you for your hard work and perseverance.
Posted by And Bagley Was A Friend Of Mine at July 22, 2007 02:19 PM"...an absurd but still accepted gringo notion I could “own” part of the earth..."
How so is it such an absurd notion? Bought and paid for.
As usual Bagley, you missed the point. Not surprised.
In fact Bagley, you missed the nuances of the whole post. Your world is black and white and I suspect you are very anal.
Posted by at July 22, 2007 03:34 PM"In fact Bagley, you missed the nuances of the whole post..."
"Nuance," the last refuge of the inchoate.
The mysterious poster that I will refer to as "July 22."
Please explain. I doubt that you can.....
Posted by And Bagley Was A Friend Of Mine at July 22, 2007 05:46 PMThe Bagley posting is of the most hide bound, dehumanized libertarianism possible. Exultant in the peevish,snipping anality of the classic Republican obssesion with filthy lucre, one whiffs the odour of the rotting undead.
This is an afflicted literalism so estranged to metaphor or poetic resonance that even Shakespeare could not move it, such is its alienation.
The black isotope of the fascist mind-set.
The heart in a permanent deep freeze and contemptuously proud.
The negative terminal of the dead.
Posted by Jill Bains at July 22, 2007 05:57 PM"The black isotope of the fascist mind-set.
The heart in a permanent deep freeze and contemptuously proud.
The negative terminal of the dead."
Can you please move beyond Freshman-level postings....
....So tired.
Posted by And Bagley Was A Friend Of Mine at July 22, 2007 06:11 PMCan you please move beyond Freshman-level postings....
....So tired. -(Bagley)
-Those ripostes were calibrated for the delectation of the freshman level human being and the flightiness of an insect soul.
Do you think I would waste Shakespeare on you?
Much less doggerel.
Posted by Jill Bains at July 22, 2007 06:53 PMI believe this country is on the road to fascism. Read all of the so-called liberal blogs. Even these people are calling for a stronger military. This military madness really is killing our country. So when I see the so called "left" supporting this path to fascism, I don't have much hope. You may not enjoy your liitle piece of paradise for very long.
Posted by jj at July 23, 2007 08:05 AMParadox, your letters from California are a treat. You make me appreciate my little patch of suburbia in hot and smoggy Pasadena, where we actually got a splash of summer rain this morning, the first (barely)measurable rain of the year!
Posted by chrisc at July 23, 2007 08:23 AMThis post (and the comments here aimed at Bagley) prove that liberals are as annoying and agenda-driven as conservatives. Bagley makes excellent points. Instead of addressing them, others who comment here attack him.
And yes, the original post is poorly written and makes little sense.
Especially annoying is the reference to "gringos"--as if Americans invented the concept of land ownership. In fact, land ownership can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians, who where the first surveyors.
"And yes, the original post is poorly written and makes little sense."
-(Poo)
Arguably, had the original posting been 'well written' and coherent in the manner I believe you beseech, it would have been bereft of the special shadings and suggestive,overtonal meanings it now possesses.
Had it been written with the syntactical assurances and excessively literal meaning you seem to demand it would not have had the poetic license you find unintelligible.
Paradox’s seemingly controversial and nonsensical statements regarding 'gringos' and property rights is perfectly clear to those
sensitive to its allusive, if not literal meanings. If anything, it is your demand to deny its coherence, which is the archaic reading.
No one cares much if the concept of private property was first instituted in Egypt, however historically correct that may be.
What is important is that it is the present, severe anality of the American affliction for private property, which has the most malefic psychic and literal ramifications. In this, 'modern' sense I find Paradox's reading transparent, with a hyper literal accuracy you are incapable of feeling.
Similarly the concept of anal retentiveness is no longer conjoined to the strict, more scientific meaning of Freudian psychoanalysis, but has more meaning in contemporary usage in the more informal sense.
When Baldy was a friend of mine cannot make sensible connections, and labels the Paradox posting 'incoherent,' he opens himself up to accusations of 'being anal.' His insistence on an overweening desire to forcibly 'retain' a statically referenced language, and not 'succumb' (or let loose of) that which is archaic, is classic anality.
This anality is clearly a psychic cornerstone of the Republican obsession with ownership, property and money in a purely literal
sense.
Of course there have been earlier historical antecedents for such vulgar possessiveness. Paradox was simply referencing the modern American wretchednness with that dirty obsession.
And please do not include me with 'liberals.'
May you avoid the grim isotopic darkness of terminal fascism.