Tuesday, August 16, 20051989: NOTHING INTO SOMETHINGIn the beginning there is a typewriter. It sits on a table and looks like an ancient Cadillac with it’s curves and unrestrained weight. It is made to last for centuries. Its keys are connected to the letter’s type face by long slender arms of metal. There’s elegance in the make of it, pleasure in... Sign in to see full entry.Sunday, August 14, 2005THE FUNERALLittle suburban rome extends its asphalt arms and gathers in the many. All around’s a brown subdivided world, punctuated by fast food outlets and factories. Hard scrub lined paddocks press against the fences and naked roots claw the dust. The only noticeable movement is the speed of freight trucks... Sign in to see full entry.Thursday, August 11, 2005THE CLASH OF OLD MENAfter celebrating mass, and an hour’s meditation, the community gathered for breakfast. Grey hovered at the table, with a gleeful gaze, and threw out one of his standard quotes from Churchill. Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job he said as he rattled the newspaper. He was a wiry old man, well... Sign in to see full entry.Tuesday, August 9, 2005TRANSFORMATIONIf experience has taught me anything, it's that the forces of life do not take their measure from our ideas of what's reasonable or appropriate. Before she came into my life I was a boy who was easily overwhelmed by the complicated environment that I was living in. I was easily intimidated and... Sign in to see full entry.Saturday, August 6, 2005CAUGHT BY SURPRISEIt was a typical morning. I was sitting at the computer in the front office writing up a talk on spirituality. Sunlight was spilling through the windows and I was immersed in work. Suddenly I felt her at the back of my neck. Her mouth was hot and eager and her perfumed breasts pushed in like a... Sign in to see full entry.Tuesday, August 2, 2005POLITICSBefore I entered the monastery I was fairly na๏ve, even oblivious, about the political dimensions of life. I certainly didn't see Ho as a political creature the first time I met him. In the strange and somewhat indifferent world of the monastery, he presented himself as someone highly available and... Sign in to see full entry.Friday, July 29, 2005INTO WONDERLANDThere was nothing attractive about the conference room. It was a fairly barren space with quaint books from a bygone era in one corner, a mangy mangled pot plant in another and a number of wall hangings covering the yellow brickwork. Streams of morning sunlight spilled in and I sat, in the midst of... Sign in to see full entry.Saturday, July 23, 200524 JULY: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO METhis is just a brief post, in passing, to make mention of the historic occasion of my 38th birthday. Thanks for all who have visited my blog over the time I've been here and I hope you're all having a marvelous weekend. Sign in to see full entry.Friday, July 22, 2005terrorism and religious psychologyThis is just a brief post. This morning I was making some notes regarding one of my first visits to the monastery (more than fifteen years ago when I was a pretty naive and vulnerable 22 year old). I was thinking about the way I was totally, emotionally bowled over by the first retreat talk I had... Sign in to see full entry.Thursday, July 21, 2005SFOE: The Storm Front Of ExistenceThis post is rather impromptu as I'm on a day off and passing through the city. Given that I'm about to turn 38, on Sunday, and that I've been working over past experience I've come to a realization over the past day. So here it is. I suspect one of the key questions in life boils down to this: what... Sign in to see full entry. |
