Playing Alone

Playing Alone

When I was down beside the sea A wooden spade they gave to me To dig the sandy shore. Robert Louis Stevenson, At the Sea-Side A Child’s Garden of Verses There is nothing quite like playing alone. To watch it is a privilege. Indeed, in watching one might even...
Beyond Change

Beyond Change

“But it is the same thing that at the same time has seen and is seeing.” Aristotle, Metaphysics This might seem a bit strange. But it is marvelous. Try this today. Look at something worth looking at, something beautiful: some-thing or some-one that you love. Keep...
The Joys of Talking to Yourself

The Joys of Talking to Yourself

“The virtuous man wishes to converse with himself.” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, IX Conversations with oneself. They could be a sign that something is wrong. But done well, they are a sign that something is right. A virtuous man, Aristotle explains, has much delight...
Silence of Monks

Silence of Monks

“For it becomes the master to speak and to teach, but it beseems the disciple to be silent and to listen.” The Rule of St. Benedict Fall break. I am spending a week with fourteen college students, plus my son, living the life—as near as we can—of the Benedictine monks...
Discipline and Silence

Discipline and Silence

“And when it comes to action, put your trust in discipline and silence; in every kind of warfare they count a lot, and particularly in naval engagement.” Phormio, Athenian naval commander, in Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War. The parallels between warfare...

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