Mmm

 “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mmm

"True observers of nature, although they may think differently, will still agree that everything that is, everything that is observable as a phenomenon, can only exhibit itself in one of two ways. It is either a primal polarity that is able to unify, or it is a primal unity that is able to divide. The operation of nature consists of splitting the united or uniting the divided; this is the eternal movement of systole and diastole of the heartbeat, the inhalation and exhalation of the world in which we live, act, and exist." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mmm...

"A man cannot speak to his son but as a father; to his wife but as a husband; to his enemy but upon terms: whereas a friend may speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person." — Francis Bacon, from "Of Friendship". 

Mmm..

"If we demand perfection or nothing, we will have nothing." — Francis Schaeffer

Mmm...

"Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly." — #FranzKafka

Mmm...

"Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter." — D. L. Moody

Mmm

"History shows that when religion and politics get in bed together, violence is their love child." — Bruxy Cavey, The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus. 

Mmm

 "[A] man's reach should exceed his grasp, [o]r what's a heaven for?" — Robert Browning 

Mmm

"That is what life is: a chain reaction of individuals colliding with others and influencing their lives without realizing it. A decision that seems minuscule to you, may be monumental to the fate of the world." -- J. D. Stroube

Mmm

"Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." — Kurt Vonnegut 

Mmm...

"We human beings are vulnerable to many kinds of affliction and most of us are at some time afflicted by serious ills. How we cope is only in small part up to us. It is most often to others that we owe our survival, let alone our flourishing, as we encounter bodily illness and injury, inadequate nutrition, mental defect and disturbance, and human aggression and neglect. This dependence on particular others for protection and sustenance is most obvious in early childhood and in old age. But between these first and last stages our lives are characteristically marked by longer or shorter periods of injury, illness or other disablement, and some among us are disabled for their entire lives." -- Alasdair MacIntyre

Spesieïsme

Ek het sopas 'n erg ontstelde video gekyk van die Wuhan-vleismark waar party reken die oorsprong van die huidige Korona-virus is. Die video wys allerhande diere, van katte en honde tot slange, rotte en vlermuise, asook die bekende "kos" soos varke, in hokke of opgekap op slagtersblokke.

Terwyl 'n mens die makabere beelde aanskou is daar 'n groot versoeking om te dink ons is minder barbaars as dié Sjinese wat honde en rotte eet. Omdat dié "kosse" só volksvreemd is maak dit ons blind vir ons eie barbaarse slagting van bekende "kosse", die miljarde hoenders en beeste, die kalwers en lammers watse braaivleisgeure ons monde laat water. Nee, net omdat jy nie hond eet nie, maak dit jou nie 'n beter mens nie.

Jy eet steeds die vlees van 'n ander lewende wese, en jou verlustiging aan daardie hoenderboudjie of skaap tjoppie, varkribbetjie of T-bone steak is eties dieselfde as dié van 'n kat- en honde-eter. 'n Vark ervaar dieselfde vrees en pyn in die slagpale as wat jou skoothondjie sou ervaar. Laat ons nie diere-rassiste wees en maak of die lewe van een tipe dier meer waarde het as dié van 'n ander tipe dier nie; dat 'n hoender "behoort" geëet te word, maar 'n olifant te edel is, dat 'n skaap is kos, maar 'n hond is familie.

Konfronteer jouself met die waarheid van jou medepligtigheid aan die lyding en moord van lewende wesens. Ons moorddade het te verwyderd geraak, ver weg agter die hoë mure van die slagpale, en mooi verpak agter die blink vensters van slaghuis en supermark. Dit is omdat die bloed van ons prooi nie meer aan ons eie hande sit nie, dat ons vergeet het hoe aandadig ons is, en hoe die skarlaken van alle onskuldige diere aan ons vingers en monde kleef.

Mmm...

"Spirit animates matter; matter expresses spirit. This synergy is the soul." 

Mmm

“To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the devil.” – Jack Gilbert

Mmm...

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 (1973) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is