To quote Kurt Vonnegut: “When I was a boy…all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.”
It’s hard to reckon with the complexity of life and death; with balancing suffering and celebration; with the idea that the world does not revolve around you, your precious moments or your favorite song. Wouldn’t it be nice to clear all that away with some nice words and a captivating leader?
Most of us have to spend roughly a third of our life doing things that don’t bring us joy in order to make the money necessary for survival and a little bit of joy. Knowing that there is a way to avoid all of that work while still getting that money…I guess that’s why gambling is a thing.
[F]or the purposes of today’s episode, I want us to focus on one thing: that a tiny crystal became the center of a major act of civil disobedience, aimed at creating a transformational shift in society at a global scale.
[T]hese are the juxtapositions at the root of our experience as human beings. The heart is powerful yet not invincible. Each heart that exists will fail one day. And while you may be able to temporarily replace it, that replacement will not last forever either. And when you lose it, everything’s over.
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. – Terrence Mann, Field of Dreams
Airplanes are for crossing the country with speed, cars are for getting into our land’s nooks and crannies, but the train is for contemplation. Watch as you hurtle past graffiti and industry; gaze upon pastures and homes; break bread with businesspeople and families. The train is the most romantic way to travel.
The Wilmington Library is more of a temple than a building, a full city block wide with ornate designs ringing the upper parts of the structure. But I think it’s the words etched into the walls that made this space feel sacred: philosophy, religion, science on one side of the entry door; painting, architecture, sculpture on the other.
The greatest thing about [the line between land and ocean] is how flexible of a line it is. In our world of binaries (on or off; living or dead; wet or dry), land and ocean remind us of the spectrums that exist; there is no clear demarcation when it comes to the border between these two.
For those of us who came of age in the ‘90s, the home computer was a revolutionary thing. But within a few years, it became ubiquitous. And two of the biggest names and competitors in the computer industry served as a dividing line for consumers. Did you support Microsoft or Apple? Your answer told others as much about you as your response to “The Rolling Stones or The Beatles?” or “Star Wars or Star Trek?”.