Happy Birthday, Michel de Montaigne

Unknown, Portrait de Montaigne au Chapeau, 1820

If we call prodigies or miracles whatever our reason cannot reach, how many of these appear continually before our eyes! Let us consider through what clouds and how gropingly we are led to the knowledge of most of the things that are right in our hands; assuredly we shall find that it is rather familiarity than knowledge that takes away their strangeness.  Miracles arise from our ignorance of nature, not from nature itself.

Michel de Montaigne, born on this day in 1533, from Essays, Book 1, chapter 23 

Les chapeaux, c'est important, les enfants.

Happy Birthday, William Cowper

Romney, William Cowper, 1792

THE POPLAR FIELD

The poplars are felled; farewell to the shade,

And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade:

The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,

Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.

Twelve years have elapsed since I first took a view

Of my favourite field, and the bank where they grew,

And now in the grass behold they are laid,

And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade.

The blackbird has fled to another retreat

Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat;

And the scene where his melody charmed me before

Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.

My fugitive years are all hasting away,

And I must ere long lie as lowly as they,

With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head,

Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.

'Tis a sight to engage me, if anything can,

To muse on the perishing pleasures of man;

Short-lived as we are, our enjoyments, I see,

Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we.

William Cowper, born on this day in 1731

More.

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It's enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.

Claude Monet

Hats matter.

Obliged.

Trumbull, Benjamin Franklin, 1778

Keep reminding me, Steve ...

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.

Ben Franklin, speaking at the Constitutional Convention, September 1787

Hats matter. 

Multitudes.

Johnston, Walt Whitman, 1890

51

The past and present wilt—I have fill’d them, emptied them.

And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?

Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,

(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day’s work? who will soonest be through with his supper?

Who wishes to walk with me?

Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

Walt Whitman

Hats matter, kids.

Sing.

This day will never come again and anyone who fails to eat and drink and taste and smell it will never have it offered to him again in all eternity. The sun will never shine as it does today, but you must play your part and sing a song, one of your best. 

Hermann Hesse

Hats matter.

Happy Birthday, Murphey

Michael Martin Murphey was born on this day in 1945.

"Cosmic Cowboy" with some Lost Gonzo Boys ...

Hats matter.

Do.

To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.

Hermann Hesse

Hats matter.

Happy Birthday, Dolby

Thomas Dolby was born on this day in 1958.

"One of Our Submarines" ...

Hats matter.

Live.

Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the romance of the unusual.

Ernest Hemingway

Hats matter.