Saturday, June 28, 2008
Read-a-thon Update the Fourth
Any meaning is better than none. Ask any Catholic or Methodist or Hutterite or Hmong. You believe in a God who, in his exquisite loneliness, created the universe and little you. Or you believe that we, in our terrifying loneliness, created God. Doesn't matter which. Ask any Vietnamese child kneeling in the mud, praying, choking on her tears, feeling the hot muzzle of an M16 at the nape of her neck, hearing the screams of her grandparents, inhaling the sting of smoke and cordite, knowing that this soldier here behind you, dear, is about to make his own meaning by firing a burst of bullets through your head. At that moment there is no arrow of time for you, there is no there, no then. There is only this singularity, this Planck instant, the big bang. At that moment you are borrowing energy against time and shaping your brief life into a quantum of meaning.
--John Dufresne, Requiem, Mass. 168 pages
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A bang, not a whimper
Two months into L.'s retirement, and I'm finished with the stockpiling of books. No more book purchases! Or at least, no purcha...
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(See also Musee des Beaux Arts ) As far as mental anguish goes, the old painters were no fools. They understood how the mind, the freakiest ...
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Lou wondered where his information would go when he died. Would filaments of learning plant patterns on earth? Would his brain train the sin...
Sounds like an interesting book.
ReplyDeleteWow - that's a powerful quote.
ReplyDeleteUm yea. heavy stuff
ReplyDeleteWow. A great quote, but I don't think I could handle it at this point in the read-a-thon. lol
ReplyDeleteIf you're still with us, I hope you're enjoying your reading! :)
ReplyDelete