{"id":23512,"date":"2020-09-25T09:28:02","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T13:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=23512"},"modified":"2020-09-25T09:28:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T13:28:16","slug":"the-circle-is-not-its-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/the-circle-is-not-its-center\/","title":{"rendered":"The Circle Is Not Its Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

[Untitled photo by Henri Prestes. First saw it on Tumblr<\/a>, then double-checked his Instagram account<\/a> for further description. All he says there is, “At the top of the highest portuguese mountain the dense mist is an almost perpetual occurrence.”]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From whiskey river<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humility, therefore, is absolutely necessary if man is to avoid acting like a baby all his life. To grow up means, in fact, to become humble, to throw away the illusion that I am at the center of everything and that other people only exist to provide me with comfort and pleasure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Thomas Merton [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and<\/a> (italicized lines):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Am I Not Among the Early Risers<\/strong><\/p>

Am I not among the early risers
and the long-distance walkers?<\/p>

Have I not stood, amazed, as I consider
the perfection of the morning star
above the peaks of the houses, and the crowns of the trees
blue in the first light?
Do I not see how the trees tremble, as though
sheets of water flowed over them
though it is only wind, that common thing,
free to everyone, and everything?<\/p>

Have I not thought, for years, what it would be
worthy to do, and then gone off, barefoot and with a silver pail,
to gather blueberries,
thus coming, as I think, upon a right answer?<\/p>

What will ambition do for me that the fox, appearing suddenly
at the top of the field,
her eyes sharp and confident as she stared into mine,
has not already done?<\/p>

What countries, what visitations,
what pomp
would satisfy me as thoroughly as Blackwater Woods
on a sun-filled morning, or, equally, in the rain?<\/p>

Here is an amazement — once I was twenty years old and in <\/em>
every motion of my body there was a delicious ease,
and in every motion of the green earth there was
a hint of paradise,
and now I am sixty years old, and it is the same.<\/em><\/p>

Above the modest house and the palace — the same darkness.
Above the evil man and the just, the same stars.
Above the child who will recover and the child who will
not recover, the same energies roll forward
from one tragedy to the next and from one foolishness to the next.<\/em><\/p>

I bow down.<\/em><\/p>

Have I not loved as though the beloved could vanish at any moment,
or become preoccupied, or whisper a name other that mine
in the stretched curvatures of lust, or over the dinner table?
Have I ever taken good fortune for granted?<\/p>

Have I not, every spring, befriended the swarm that pours forth?
Have I not summoned the honey-man to come, to hurry,
to bring with him the white and comfortable hive?<\/p>

And while I waited, have I not leaned close, to see everything?
Have I not been stung as I watched their milling and gleaming,
and stung hard?<\/p>

Have I not been ready always at the iron door,
not knowing to what country it opens — to death or to more life?<\/p>

Have I ever said that the day was too hot or too cold
or the night too long and as black as oil anyway,
or the morning, washed blue and emptied entirely
of the second-rate, less than happiness<\/p>

as I stepped down from the porch and set out along
the green paths of the world?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Mary Oliver [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Are of a Tribe<\/strong><\/p>

We plant seeds in the ground
And dreams in the sky,<\/p>

Hoping that, someday, the roots of one
Will meet the upstretched limbs of the other.<\/p>

It has not happened yet.
We share the sky, all of us, the whole world:<\/p>

Together, we are a tribe of eyes that look upward,
Even as we stand on uncertain ground.<\/p>

The earth beneath us moves, quiet and wild,
Its boundaries shifting, its muscles wavering.<\/p>

The dream of sky is indifferent to all this,
Impervious to borders, fences, reservations.<\/p>

The sky is our common home, the place we all live.
There we are in the world together.<\/p>

The dream of sky requires no passport.
Blue will not be fenced. Blue will not be a crime.<\/p>

Look up. Stay awhile. Let your breathing slow.
Know that you always have a home here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Alberto Rios [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hora Inmensa<\/strong><\/p>

Only a bell and a bird break the stillness\u2026
It seems that the two talk with the setting sun
Golden colored silence, the afternoon is made of crystals
A roving purity sways the cold trees
and beyond all that
a transparent river dreams that trampling over pearls
it breaks loose
and flows into infinity<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Juan Ram\u00f3n Jim\u00e9nez [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason [parallel universes] are not universes is that any given universe is not actually a thing as such, but is just a way of looking at what is technically known as the WSOGMM, or Whole Sort of General Mish Mash. The Whole Sort of General Mish Mash doesn\u2019t actually exist either, but is just the sum total of all the different ways there would be of looking at it if it did.<\/p>

The reason they are not parallel is the same reason that the sea is not parallel. It doesn\u2019t mean anything. You can slice the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash any way you like and you will generally come up with something that someone will call home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Douglas Adams [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#36: <\/strong>The novitiate approached the one who had been charged with their instruction. <\/p>

“Sensei<\/em>,” the young man said, “I am but one of your dozens of students. We all seem so different from one another. We come from different parts of the world, from different bloodlines; some of us are quick learners, some of us slow; some of us face the world eagerly, and some of us quail before even the small challenge of getting out of bed. With such sharp differences among its parts, how can your school be considered whole — a single entity?”<\/p>

The instructor laughed. “Yes,” he said, “I myself have often wondered about this.” And dismissing the student, he returned to his work in the garden.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(JES, Maxims for Nostalgists<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Untitled photo by Henri Prestes. First saw it on Tumblr, then double-checked his Instagram account for further description. All he says there is, “At the top of the highest portuguese mountain the dense mist is an almost perpetual occurrence.”] From whiskey river: Humility, therefore, is absolutely necessary if man is to avoid acting like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Mary Oliver, Douglas Adams, a Maxim for Nostalgists, et al.: 'The Circle Is Not Its Center'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,250,5,4878,251,3460,4159],"tags":[325,595,1689,2073,3285,4506,5221,5222,5223,5224],"class_list":{"0":"post-23512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-art","9":"category-06_writing","10":"category-fiction","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"category-science-fiction-06_writing","13":"category-essays","14":"tag-thomas-merton","15":"tag-mary-oliver","16":"tag-douglas-adams","17":"tag-self-absorption","18":"tag-maxims-for-nostalgists","19":"tag-part-and-whole","20":"tag-juan-ramon-jimenez","21":"tag-ambition","22":"tag-local-vs-universal","23":"tag-henri-prestes","24":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-67e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23512"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23532,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23512\/revisions\/23532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}