David Mallett - How Much More

David Mallett asks the question - How Much More





Dick Henthorn
29 Oct 2019

Obsessive State

Obsessive State

The fact that in the obsessive state we overlook "realistic" aspects of the object of desire and focus on sheer delight suggests that the loving eye sees something to which the cold eye of reality is blind.

(Thomas Moore - Soul Mates, p. 220)

Dick Henthorn

28 Oct 2019

Letters

Letters

... letters offer an unusually fertile means for revealing one's deepest thoughts and feelings, articulating them with a degree of style and precision that conversation may not be able to achieve.

(Thomas Moore - Soul Mates, p. 221-2)

Dick Henthorn

27 Oct 2019

Compulsive Behavior

Compulsive Behavior

... compulsive behavior is a symptom, an external sign of something internal.

(The Color of Light, Tilleraas, 4 Sep)

Dick Henthorn

26 Oct 2019

Believe Them

When people show you who they are, believe them.
(Maya Angelou, author, on page 48 of Words That Matter by the editors of The Oprah Magazine)

Dick Henthorn
22 Oct 2019

Be Quiet

To be quiet oneself, one must first waste a little time.
(Elizabeth Brown, author, on page 73 of Words That Matter by the editors of The Oprah Magazine)

Dick Henthorn
21 Oct 2019

What Happens

People believe themselves to be dependent on what happens for their happiness. They don't realize that what happens is the most unstable thing in the universe.
(Eckhart Tolle -spiritual thinker on page 79 of Words That Matter by the editors of The Oprah Magazine)

Dick Henthorn
20 Oct 2019

It Doesn't Matter Anymore

When we realize how little what we do matters to other people, we feel more free to reveal our inner selves.
Sheldon Kopp, Blues ain't nothing but a good soul feeling bad, October 17

Dick Henthorn
17 Oct 2019

Tending to Business

Tending to Business

Today, as never before perhaps -- given the genuinely apocalyptic threats unfolding around us -- Americans have an obligation to themselves, their families, and society to quit whining, stop comparing notes on who is more diseased, addicted, or dysfunctional, and just tend to business.

Steve Salerno - SHAM - How the Self-Help Movement Made American Helpless, p. 141

Dick Henthorn

16 Oct 2019

Demagogue

Demagogue

It is not hard to see how feelings of Victimization would make groups of people who share in a common form of oppression exquisitely susceptible to the demagogue: the politician or political activist who vows to level the playing field and win proper redress for his constituency. The demagogue consolidates his power by fanning the flames of your impotence. He plays to the paranoia of those who feel downtrodden and persecuted, which SHAM [Self-Help and Actualization Movement] counsels just about everyone to feel in one sense or another.

Steve Salerno, SHAM - How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, p. 241-42)

Dick Henthorn

15 Oct 2019

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

In his topsy-turvy tale, “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” Lewis Carroll explores the underside of life in the chaos of Wonderland, where "everything's got a moral if only you can find it." Adults almost inevitably find that Wonderland is like life. The comically absurd situations give us a chance to laugh, which we must all do at times or die of despair.

When Alice follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole, she is plunged into a place where nothing, including language, works in a familiar way. Even the traditional dimensions of orderly time and space are nowhere to be found. Desperately reciting memorized lessons, she tries to make sense of the present chaos in terms of the stable past. When Alice can no longer count on her beliefs to make sense, she first loses her security and then her identity, asking throughout her adventures, "but then ... who am I?”

Like Alice, as we face our own disorganized world, we're tempted to escape back into the reassuring innocence of childhood. Choosing to act unhampered by conventional wisdom gives us greater freedom. Still, that freedom is hard to hold onto. We have to trust ourselves even when everyone else seems to agree that we don't know what we're doing.

There are times when your freedom depends on believing in yourself, no matter what else no matter what anyone else thinks. 

Sheldon Kopp in “Blues Ain't Nothing But A Good Soul Feeling Bad” - November 6

Dick Henthorn
4 Oct 2019