'Insatiable cravings, the notorious neuroses of the modern age, with its troubled spirits, its martyrs, fanatics and rebels, and its angry, bullying, subversive preachers...The naive artists who is suspicious of anyone curious about his inner life, wholly, even grimly, impersonal, dryly objective, at one with his music.
Verdi's art, like that of Bach, is objective, direct...It springs from an unbroken unity, a sense of belonging to its own time and society and milieu, which precludes the nostalgie de l'infini.'
---I. Berlin.
This is from one of my favourite essays by Berlin. I think a shorter version can be found here.
Having written about the importance of eccentricity yesterday I feel the need to write about the importance of the centre today, of being centred, that is.
"Humility should help us to lead quite ordinary lives, peacefully earning our bread and working from day to day in a world that will pass away."
---Thomas Merton.
~~~
In what sense is a love of the world already an expression of a religious outlook? There's a certain strain in our thinking that wants to view religion as merely a kind of feeling,a remnant of some archaic past, a blind faith that is on the one hand distinct from knowledge, and on the other either something that negates love and sensuality because of its either supposed asceticism or its focus on love that is too narrow, standing opposed to worldly things and ordinary life.
But if religious art is intent on producing beauty in the world how can this be independent of love?
~~~
How to live a life with lower expectations, one in which one realizes one cannot read everything,see everything,understand everything? To concentrate on the essential, think about what one really values and avoid distractions- the fantasies of what we could have been or could be- requires courage, patience, and honesty. It's too easy to reach out for something beyond oneself, to cling on to some image of your life, dream of settling accounts.
Verdi's art, like that of Bach, is objective, direct...It springs from an unbroken unity, a sense of belonging to its own time and society and milieu, which precludes the nostalgie de l'infini.'
---I. Berlin.
This is from one of my favourite essays by Berlin. I think a shorter version can be found here.
Having written about the importance of eccentricity yesterday I feel the need to write about the importance of the centre today, of being centred, that is.
"Humility should help us to lead quite ordinary lives, peacefully earning our bread and working from day to day in a world that will pass away."
---Thomas Merton.
~~~
In what sense is a love of the world already an expression of a religious outlook? There's a certain strain in our thinking that wants to view religion as merely a kind of feeling,a remnant of some archaic past, a blind faith that is on the one hand distinct from knowledge, and on the other either something that negates love and sensuality because of its either supposed asceticism or its focus on love that is too narrow, standing opposed to worldly things and ordinary life.
But if religious art is intent on producing beauty in the world how can this be independent of love?
~~~
How to live a life with lower expectations, one in which one realizes one cannot read everything,see everything,understand everything? To concentrate on the essential, think about what one really values and avoid distractions- the fantasies of what we could have been or could be- requires courage, patience, and honesty. It's too easy to reach out for something beyond oneself, to cling on to some image of your life, dream of settling accounts.
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