Sanford Our night in St. George was our first in a bed – each night going across the country our hospitium had been a floor – and we took advantage of our opportunity, sleeping soundly and late. It was to be our last night in a bed until the other side of the Sierras. This good […]
Tag Archives: Goethe
Fearlessness and Affection in Las Vegas.
01-Aug-13How to Get Me to Keep Reading a Book.
27-Nov-12http://mccallsnurseries.com/core/misc/drupal.js Put this on the second page: When the mists in my beloved valley steam all around me; when the sun rests on the surface of the impenetrable forest at noon and only single rays steal into the inner sanctum; when I lie on the tall grass beside a rushing brook and become aware of the […]
Terror.
25-Jul-12A few nights ago I slept little, as a thunderstorm rolled through the area and was sending down bolts all over the mountaintop. Two bolts whacked trees just on the other side of the field, crackling through the air most impressively. I was convinced of course that my cabin would be next. As I’ve said […]
I am continually impressed by Goethe’s genius – his capacity to productively see. “Beauty is perfection in combination with freedom” is put as no one else can put it, and the more you think about what keeps things and people which are formally perfect from possessing the elevating radiance which distinguishes true beauty, the more […]
Winter on Staten Island.
22-Dec-10The Staten Island book is a selection of the many essays I wrote about Staten Island life while living there. Not all could be fit into the scope of the published book. The following one, “Winter,” is one of four essays on the seasons; Autumn is found here. WINTER Who never ate his bread in […]
Abraham, Our Father in Faith.
13-Jul-10In the endless self-repeating Flows for ever more the Same; Myriad arches, springing, meeting, Hold at rest the mighty Frame; Streams from all things love of living, Grandest star and humblest clod; All the straining, all the striving, Is eternal rest in God. – GOETHE In any good religion, there should be something utterly unpalatable, […]
Happiness.
15-Dec-09I remember reading of Goethe, a man so blessed that some have said he lived the fullest human life ever, that he said that in all his life he never had forty consecutive happy days. Senior year of college, after turning in my thesis, I put myself to this challenge, and had twenty-five consecutive happy […]
Why The 19th Century Was So Lovely in the End.
17-Apr-12Because, for all its problems, you can bet that even in a town like Tombstone, Arizona, “the rottenest place you ever saw,” in the 19th century someone somewhere in town had a bust of Goethe.