"Very few people knew anything of Basil; not because he was in the least unsociable, for if a man out of the street had walked into his rooms he would have kept him talking till morning. Few people knew him, because, like all poets, he could do without them; he welcomed a human face as he might welcome a sudden blend of colour in a sunset; but he no more felt the need of going out to parties than he felt the need of altering the sunset clouds."

-GK Chesterton, The Club of Queer Trades

Date:	2010-06-03 10:39
Subject:	Pleasures never lie.
Security:	Public
Mood:	contemplative

"The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love." -- Henry Scougal

When I found him in Mill City that morning he had fallen on the beat and evil days that come to young guys in their middle twenties. He was hanging around waiting for a ship, and to earn his living he had a job as a special guard in the barracks across the canyon. His girl Lee Ann had a bad tongue and gave him a call-down every day. They spent all week saving pennies and went out Saturdays to spend fifty bucks in three hours.

-- Jack Kerouac, On the Road

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is
constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.
A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that
every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret;
that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that
every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there,
is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!
Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to
this. No more can I turn the leaves of this dear book that I loved,
and vainly hope in time to read it all. No more can I look into the
depths of this unfathomable water, wherein, as momentary lights
glanced into it, I have had glimpses of buried treasure and other
things submerged. It was appointed that the book should shut with
a spring, for ever and for ever, when I had read but a page. It was
appointed that the water should be locked in an eternal frost, when
the light was playing on its surface, and I stood in ignorance on the
shore. My friend is dead, my neighbour is dead, my love, the darling
of my soul, is dead; it is the inexorable consolidation and
perpetuation of the secret that was always in that individuality,
and which I shall carry in mine to my life's end. In any of the
burial-places of this city through which I pass, is there a sleeper
more inscrutable than its busy inhabitants are, in their innermost
personality, to me, or than I am to them?"

Charles Dickens (Tale of Two Cities)

"You who are rich, the poor have been appointed your companions in this life. You see them burdened by not having things, while you are burdened by having things. In not having things, the poor have nothing to support them; you, in having much, are weighed down. By helping them with their need, you can diminish your own load."

--St. Augustine

Date:	2009-05-06 15:55
Subject:	A blessing and a curse.
Security:	Public
Mood:	thoughtful

"We shall try, if we get the chance, to earn our living by doing well what would be worth doing even if we had not our living to earn. A considerable mortification of our avarice may be necessary. It is usually the insane jobs that lead to big money; they are often also the least laborious."

-- CS Lewis, "Good Work and Good Works"

Date:	2009-05-04 09:30
Subject:	A Rainy Day in Dunn Loring
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleepy

We were very tired, we were very merry--
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable--
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hilltop underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry--
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry,
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry,
We hailed "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Date:	2009-05-02 22:54
Subject:	Lego Star Wars GameCube.
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

The time I've lost in wooing,
In watching and pursuing
The light, that lies
In woman's eyes,
Has been my heart's undoing.
Though Wisdom oft has sought me,
I scorn'd the lore she brought me,
My only books
Were woman's looks,
And folly's all they've taught me.

Her smile when Beauty granted,
I hung with gaze enchanted,
Like him, the sprite,
Whom maids by night
Oft meet in glen that's haunted.
Like him, too, Beauty won me,
But while her eyes were on me,
If once their ray
Was turn'd away,
Oh! winds could not outrun me.

And are those follies going?
And is my proud heart growing
Too cold or wise
For brilliant eyes
Again to set it glowing?
No, vain, alas! th' endeavour
From bonds so sweet to sever;
Poor Wisdom's chance
Against a glance
Is now as weak as ever.


--Thomas Moore

Date:	2009-03-05 12:08
Subject:	Convenience of Speech.
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

The country gentleman who told me these things had been reared in ease and comfort, was a man of good parts, and was college bred. His loose grammar was the fruit of careless habit, not ignorance. This habit among educated men in the West is not universal, but it is prevalent—prevalent in the towns, certainly, if not in the cities; and to a degree which one cannot help noticing, and marveling at. I heard a Westerner who would be accounted a highly educated man in any country, say 'never mind, it don't make no difference, anyway.' A life-long resident who was present heard it, but it made no impression upon her. She was able to recall the fact afterward, when reminded of it; but she confessed that the words had not grated upon her ear at the time—a confession which suggests that if educated people can hear such blasphemous grammar, from such a source, and be unconscious of the deed, the crime must be tolerably common—so common that the general ear has become dulled by familiarity with it, and is no longer alert, no longer sensitive to such affronts.

-- Mark Twain, Life On The Mississippi

Date:	2009-02-12 10:18
Subject:	The Deliberate, the Brutal, and the Frustrating.
Security:	Public
Mood:	Whimsical

"Les temps sont durs pour les rêveurs."

"I guess it also means that sometimes love affairs look different to the people inside them."

- Pam Beasley

Date:	2008-12-31 13:28
Subject:	Happy New Year!
Security:	Public
Mood:	dull

“The principal difference between an adventurer and a suicide is that the adventurer leaves himself a margin of escape (the narrower the margin, the greater the adventure).”

-- Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction

If it is true that our society is really capable of knowing only the quantity which we call "citizen," that it debauches its own innermost nature when it tries to deal with the quantity called "subject," then the potential scope of our system is limited; then it can extend only to people of our own kind -- people who have grown up in the same peculiar spirit of independence and self-reliance, people who can accept, and enjoy, and content themselves with our institutions. In this case, the ruling of distant peoples is not our dish. In this case, there are many things we Americans should beware of, and among them is the acceptance of any sort of paternalistic responsibility to anyone, be it even in the form of military occupation, if we can possibly avoid it, or for any period longer than is absolutely necessary.

-- George F. Kennan, 1951

Date:	2008-12-22 12:08
Subject:	Many thanks to you for your very important assistance.
Security:	Public
Mood:	chilly

“But a man in any station can do his duty,” said the young Captain, “and, in doing it, can earn his own respect, even if his case should be so very unfortunate and so very rare that he can earn no other man’s."

-- Charles Dickens, The Seven Poor Travellers

"Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man's. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!"

-- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Date:	2008-12-03 11:33
Subject:	I will pass this way but once.
Security:	Public
Mood:	thoughtful

"The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever."

--Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Date:	2008-12-01 11:27
Subject:	I used to work with these guys. Hurray!
Security:	Public
Mood:	pleased

"Team Bethesda Runs the Good Race"

The Philadelphia Marathon made history this year: warm-up clothing discarded by 18,000 runners went to Philadelphians in need, instead of being carried away in trash trucks. Twenty-two of Bethesda Project’s staff and shelter guests joined forces with the Marathon in a race to meet the winter needs of our city’s homeless. When the starting gun sounded on Sunday, November 23, runners took off on their 26-mile course, leaving outer layers of clothing at the starting line. This year Team Bethesda fell into line to collect 100 huge bags of clothing and transported them to Our Brothers’ Place. A major laundering and sorting project will soon deliver these ‘donations’ to our own special finish line.

Date:	2008-11-06 12:36
Subject:	Why I'm glad for the Symbol that won the election.
Security:	Public
Mood:	unimpressed

"Obama's victory creates the prospect of a new 'real' America. We can't possibly know its contours yet, although I suspect the headline is that it is no longer homogeneous. It is no longer a 'white' country, even though whites remain the majority. It is a place where the primacy of racial identity - and this includes the old, Jesse Jackson version of black racial identity - has been replaced by the celebration of pluralism, of cross-racial synergy. After eight years of misgovernance, it has lost some of its global swagger ... but also some of its arrogance. It may no longer be as dominant, economically or diplomatically, as it once was. But it is younger, more optimistic, less cynical. It is a country that retains its ability to startle the world - and in a good way, with our freedom. It is a place, finally, where the content of our President's character is more important than the color of his skin."

-- Joe Klein, Time

Date:	2008-11-05 14:56
Subject:	A Mystery.
Security:	Public
Mood:	uplifted

"The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who have accepted it with humble hearts. Jesus is sent to 'preach good news to the poor'; he declares them blessed, for 'theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' To them - the 'little ones' the Father is pleased to reveal what remains hidden from the wise and the learned. Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst and privation. Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering his kingdom."

Date:	2008-10-29 12:03
Subject:	Careful on them bridges....
Security:	Public
Mood:	Glum

"Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country."

- Thomas Friedman

Date:	2008-10-28 09:49
Subject:	Time to Fire Up the Furnace
Security:	Public
Mood:	chilly

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?


--Robert E. Hayden