Compass Vol. 13 #5, Points

Points, Volume 13 #5

ASK JOB!
There are a great many opinions in the world, and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble.
--Anton Chekhov

WE'RE IN IT TOGETHER
Wendell Berry: "Community is the smallest unit of health. To speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms."

AS MEN ARE TO THEIR DOGS
To be sure, the dog is loyal. But why, on that account, should we take him as an example? He is loyal to men, not to other dogs.
--Karl Kraus

WHEN CHILD AND ANCIENT MEET
Martin Buber: "To be old is a glorious thing when one has not unlearned what it means to begin."

NOW, IT IS NOW WHERE GOD IS
Coming to God because you are detached from the earth and because pain has separated you from the world is useless. God needs souls attached to the world. It is your joy that gratifies him.
--Albert Camus

FAIR ENOUGH!
Picasso after being brought by Jean Cocteau to see his decorations of the chapel at Antibes: "Jean, I've never asked you what you think of my poems."

THAT'S TRUE!
The truth makes you free, it does not make you comfortable.
--Rabbi Lionel Blue

PURE PLAYFULNESS
Paul Klee on how he creates a picture: "I take a line out for a walk."

TOMORROW'S HEROES
When the young Kepler proposed in the 1600's that Earth's tides were caused by the tug of lunar gravity, Galileo, the most prestigious scientist of the day, declared, "These are the ravings of a madman!" When Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio, proposed that invisible waves could circulate through space and carry intelligible information at enormous distances, he was temporarily committed by 'friends' to an insane asylum.
--Larry Dossey MD

CAUGHT!
Albert van de Heuvel: "The greatest humiliation of the Church is its refusal to be humiliated."

IT'S ALL ONE
The whole problem of health in soil, plant, animal and man [is] one great subject.
--Sir Albert Howard

HARD, BUT TRUE
Two versions of the same insight:

Anyone who wants to save his life shall lose it, but anyone who loses his life for my sake shall save it. (Luke 9:24)

If you die before you die, then when you die you will not die. (Buddhist saying)

A SERB IN AMERICA
Jagoda Perich-Anderson on the fighting in Bosnia: "What my friends find most upsetting is the abominable way human beings are treating each other. Most don't want to believe that regular people could commit such horrible acts. To acknowledge this capacity is to admit that under the right circumstances we might act similarly."

HOW WELL WE KNOW!
To use words but rarely is to be natural. Hence a gusty wind cannot last all morning, and a sudden downpour cannot last all day.
--Lao Tzu

I AGREE!
John Courtney Murray SJ: "It takes a solid core of some agreement in order to debate our real disagreements."

I'VE LOOKED AT LIFE FROM BOTH SIDES NOW
Despise the world
Despise nothing
Despise thyself
Despise despising thyself.
--Abbess Herrad of Landsberg
(c. 1170) to her sisters

Points cartoon: Fish in bowl gazes lovingly at fish screensaver on computer.

Points cartoon: Fish in bowl gazes lovingly at fish screensaver on computer.

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