Monthly Archives: April 2014

(the spirit of South Africa returned to Edmonton Saturday) “You are the rolling ocean You are the mighty sea You are the breath that brings each new day to me You are what you are, you are You are what … Continue reading →

“If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousands … Continue reading →

It is in our dreams that we mostly find ourselves and one another.

Then (1871-72) Middlemarch–ending and book conclusion: “Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no … Continue reading →

Unconventional individual personal choices abound in George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Dorothea refuses to limited by her dead husband’s will and gives up her estate to marry Ladislaw. Ladislaw refuses Bulstrode’s (atonement) money because of the corrupt source, much as Mr. Garth refuses … Continue reading →

In the end, reading a great novel like Middlemarch or watching a Shakespeare tragedy for the memorable characters we desire to see and deepl/innerly need, we are back to the simple fact of presence–the individual presences of certain characters, much … Continue reading →

“Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.” “There is a coherence in things, a stability; something…is immune from change, and … Continue reading →

And third step backwards. An essential Edmo spring whether it may be April or May. The reality behind so many illusions. Hugh MacLennan called the phenomena “On Living in a Cold Country”–a wonderful nostalgic essay about growing up in Halifax … Continue reading →

spontaneous useless pleasures. In that, complete freedom from the herd and what Frank Lloyd Wright called ‘pig-piling’. What arises naturally and far beyond limited, limiting conventional social (i.e. others’)expectations. Life is, after all, for enjoyment and there is much more … Continue reading →

About 10 am, driving on a busy main street; guy stopped in front of me waiting for light. He opens his door and clumsily heaves out a pizza box which opens, pieces spilling onto the street. Closes door. Then drives on. I … Continue reading →