Meditation on friendship
Close your eyes. Breathe calmly. You sit here alone, master of your own thoughts. Imagine I am talking to you. I want to know what friendship means. Quickly, construct a differentiation. Which opposite op 'friend' have you found? Mere acquaintance? Or: enemy? But what can we say about a thing of which we cannot determine the ...
Two Strangers
How much peace is in an evening walk of two near strangers at the bay when they hold hands and gently talk even if their peace - has gone away How much truth lies there, for a little while when of human needs the most divine between a thoughtful nod and then a smile is ...
Reading: Impossible Friendships by Adam Zagajewski
Adam Zagajewski (b. 1945) is another famous Polish poet. Browsing his poetry, I found this endearing list of impossible friendships, and I quote: Impossible friendships For example, with someone who no longer is, who exists only in yellowed letters. Or long walks beside a stream, whose depths hold hidden porcelain cups—and the talks about philosophy ...
Coffee
After the boil you wait. Then you pour. Then you wait again. Three minutes. And then you press down. Slowly. Each morning, I serve myself a cup of coffee. I smile for my master who is so free, almost like me We both saw a full moon last night and she turned us into a ...
On people who live on in our dreams
I dreamt that the late British American public intellectual Christopher Hitchens was walking next to me. He was bald, like in the last months of his life when he underwent chemotherapy, but appeared in excellent health and was obviously not aware of his impending death. The image was so vivid that I could see the ...
Hitch
Christopher Hitchens died four years ago today. Of course, he went far too early. We need "contrarian" intellectuals like him more than ever, to put into words what we would call the enlightened position on the Issue, because there really is only one Issue left. Call it the refugee crisis, call it climate change, call ...
July 14.
What is friendship? This entry will take us to the height of theoretical considerations, to a summit where icy winds blow large snowflakes against our reasoning skin, where big halcyonic birds spread their giant wings to cast a mighty shadow upon our theories, where you can look to all directions without seeing anything. Who knows ...