May 18, 2023

Quote for Today

"Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?" 

Michael Torke in Observer, 

September 23, 1990

 May 17, 2023

 

SOMETIMES THEY KNOW

 

Sometimes the little old lady in the chair

in the corner knows much more than the

rest of the folks in the room.  Beneath the

wrinkles – in some corner of her brain – is

a vault full of ideas – helpful  answers to the

whys and wherefores of our questions....

Old Men too – but you have to ask – then

you have to take time to listen, listen, listen.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 17, 2023

Quote for Today

"Magic has power to experience and fathom things which are inaccessible to human reason.  For magic is a great secret wisdom, just as reason is a great public folly.  Therefore it would be desirable and good for the doctors or theology to know something about it and to understand what it actually is. and cease unjustly and unfoundedly to call it witchcraft."

Paracelsus

 May 16,  2023

Reflection

GATHERING IN A CIRCLE

 

The scene’s the same:

circles of friends –

quilting parties – taking

the place of sewing circles –

exchanging family happenings –

gossip – worries – needs ….

The equality of a round table ….

Working together on a project ....

Who sits where? Who controls

the conversation? Who turns things around?

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 16, 2023

Quote for Today

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle and that is because the  Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the hoop  of the nation,  and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished.  The flowering  tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the  west gave rain. and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion.  Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars.  The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.  Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours."

                                                                                                           John G. Reinhardt, Black Elk Speaks                                                                                                                                                                           

 May  15, 2023

Reflection

 SUNRISE ON THE ATLANTIC

 

Woke up early enough

to watch the sun come up

out of the Atlantic Ocean.

A giant ball of red orange fire ….

The game of a new day –

has just started.

“Play ball” – “Hit the ball over”

the net on this volley ball court of earth.

Lord, remind me it’s a game –

this new day of life – not

all  work, work, work….

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 May 15, 2023

Quote for today

"What attracts people most in a city are other people.  It is amazing how many pedestrian malls are designed on the assumption that what people want to do is get away from other people.  We see this in the design of sitting areas where the backs of people are turned to the main flow of people.  A brief study will convince you of the deep desire of people to be in the center and at the crossroads.  We became aware of this in our early research on street corner behavior.  When people meet on a street corner, do they move  out of the pedestrian stream or do they stay in the middle of it? My hypothesis was that people would gravitate to the little-used strip along the side of the stream.  Quite the contrary, they moved into it, and the longer the conversation, the more likely that it would take place smack in the very middle of the traffic stream.

Learn to look at steps.  If people are sitting on steps and actually blocking passage, it is  a good thing.  It means they are very comfortable there.

Probably the greatest public space in the city - the most unifying of all - is the street corner. Street corners are the place where so much of the congress of the city goes on, and it has a vey functional reason.  Take 'smoozing in the garment district of New York.  If you go along Seventh Avenue, any time from 10 o'clock in the morning until dark, you will see these knots of men standing on the sidewalks talking, sometimes not talking. Smoozing is a Yiddish term which means 'nothing talk.'  Of course there is a lot of business talk, a lot of gossip, but then you begin to notice they resemble men standing around a country courthouse.  It is a very ancient city position that fulfills some deep human impulse.  Smoozing is not necessary talking. Right after lunch, usually three or four men will line up - three abreast.  They are not necessarily saying anything but seem to be engaged in a contented amiable silence. Watch their feet.  The feet reflect a communication. If a girl goes by, the feet reveal what they are thinking. Or some crazy person goes by and one guy stops his foot pattern and then another will take it up. Larger groups reveal similar foot motions, and you will also notice the tendency to reciprocal gestures.

I have never broken the code about the meaning of these foot motions, but I feel that there is in these non-verbal patterns a human  congress that is terribly important, and that if we do not see them in a city there is something very wrong with the city. There are a number of places where you do not see this kind of activity: something about the collection of buildings and streets which prohibits this kind of thing.  Now, I would give you other ways to buttress this point, but instead will repeat my former statement:  what attracts people most to the city are other people.

William H. Whyte, "The City as Dwelling"