John Bonham was born on this day in 1948.
"The Ocean" ...
A forest of things.
If we’re ultimately alone in the world, but we’re not trained in how to manage that aloneness, then we are inevitably headed for trouble. Is it worth investing so much in so many people? I stand with May Sarton when she writes, “We have to believe that every person counts, counts as a creative force that can move mountains.”In all of this, I’m realizing that accepting and managing our aloneness is very much akin to comparable work we’re all confronted with around anxiety. Unmanaged or misunderstood, anxiety leads to inappropriate expressions of anger, apathy, addiction, and acting out. (Or, for all I know, an excessive affinity for alliteration.) It's only when we can make peace with the fact that anxiety is normal—an element of existence—that we can learn to lead effectively. As Peter Block’s friend, teacher, and co-author, Peter Koestenbaum says,When anxiety is denied, our nature is denied. … As a result, the price we pay for the denial of existential anxiety is severe. The dominant consequence is to restrict our life.…Existential anxiety is healthy and is the natural condition of the person when in a state of self-disclosure.The same is true with aloneness. Accepting it as painful at times, but still a normal part of who we are, makes it far less problematic. Instead of acting out, we can learn to live and lead more effectively.
Ari on the power of solitude ...
Solitude, once we settle into it, is a wonderful thing. It creates spiritual sustenance. It gives us much needed time to reflect. It’s our opportunity for long ignored thoughts and feelings to emerge. It’s a chance to quietly acknowledge fears that linger below the surface, unacknowledged, that weaken our emotional foundations. Reflective, thoughtful time on our own can surface hopes and dreams of a better future, support intuition, and encourage us to expand our emotional horizons.
As the ancient poet Hesiod noted, there are two sorts of human jealousies: the positive one of a free society in which citizens are impressed by the singular works of some and thus redouble their efforts to match or exceed them (“She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbor, a rich man who hastens to plow and plant and put his house in good order; and neighbor vies with his neighbor as he hurries after wealth”), and a destructive envy (“foul-mouthed, delighting in evil, with scowling face”) in which the many resent that the few have something they do not, and thus redouble their efforts to either destroy them or take away what they have acquired.The problem with destroying liberty in service to mandated sameness is obvious, driven by Hesiod’s second, destructive envy: It has never worked, because it is contrary to human nature — both man’s acquisitive habits and the fact that we are not all born into the world equal in every respect. Instead, forced equality erodes personal initiative, undermines the rule of law, ruins the honesty of language, and requires a degree of coercion antithetical to a free society.
The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground, and I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, and the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero and, in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GI's of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers above their resting places, all alike in a truly meaningful way.Winston Churchill said of those he knew in World War II they seemed to be the only young men who could laugh and fight at the same time. A great general in that war called them our secret weapon, "just the best darn kids in the world." Each died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn't volunteer to die; they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be, the values which make up what we call civilization. And how they must have wished, in all the ugliness that war brings, that no other generation of young men to follow would have to undergo that same experience.As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will every have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.
The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of man. His compulsion is my liberation.
Following rare access to the bell tower at Hull Minster in September 2021, this immersive electronic work is made entirely of recordings of the bells that have rung out over the city of Hull for centuries, and of the clock mechanism that has marked that time. With live spatialisation across 24 speakers set up around the magnificent Hull Minster, this music delves deep into the resonances of the place and plays with the rich acoustics of the building.Nightports is based on a simple rule of restriction: only sounds captured for a particular project can be used. Nothing else – no samples or synths or drum machines – though the sounds captured can be stretched, cut, morphed and twisted, ordered and reordered. All of the sounds of this performance come from Hull Minster. It is music in and of this special place.
HAMILTONGeorgia, tell Andy about how you got your mountain. Remember when somebody was interviewing you, and you said, “That’s my mountain.” And they said, “What do you mean that’s your mountain?” You said, “God told me if I painted it enough he’d give it to me.” Isn’t that true?
O’KEEFFEAnd I’m still working on it.
Today is your day!Your mountain is waiting.So ... get on your way!Dr. Seuss