Sublime

I highly recommend the poem “For Julia, in the Deep Water” [by John N. Morris] to parents who, like me, are navigating the question of when and whether to let their kids swim away.

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best s

No canteen, no food. Not even the compass. One by one I left these behind. Doing this gives a visible message to the forest: “I’m not afraid any more. That’s why I chose to be totally defenceless.” Minus my hard shell, just flesh and bones, I head for the core of the labyrinth, giving myself up to the void.

The wind was tearing from the top of the high cliff out to sea, passing over their heads, and they had the sensation that everything was passing over their heads and out of their control. Paynter felt as if his head had been blown off like a hat. But none of this gale of unreason seemed to stir a hair on the white head of the Squire,

Our generation knows a cold hell, solitary confinement in this life, without a God to damn or save it. Until man figures out the trap and hunts … “the Ultimate Ground of Being,” he has no reason at all for his existence. Empty, finite, he knows only that he will soon die. Since this life has no meaning, and he sees no future life, he is not really

Patty learns that real joy consists of knowing that human wisdom counts less than the shimmer of beeches in a breeze. As certain as weather coming from the west, the things people know for sure will change. There is no knowing for a fact. The only dependable things are humility and looking.

To be passing is to live; to remain and continue is to die. “