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A Find
Going through a drawer in a big old desk I find a notebook bound in pigskin with "1947" impressed in gold on the cover. It belonged to my grandfather- and still smells of his tobacco. The front page has been neatly excised- with scissors I think- and most of the pages are empty. On the three opening pages are some quotations in my grandfather's writing and on the back page four telephone numbers- two with addresses- in a different hand, presumably my grandmother's. The earliest quotations are written with a fountain pen, the later ones with a ballpoint; the addresses ditto. The first address has a modern 6 character postcode and so must date from some time after 1967- which is when Brighton and Hove adopted the system.
The authors my grandfather quotes are- in order: Horace Gregory, Cervantes, the un-named author of a Life of Hazlitt, Goethe, the prophet Micah, and D.T. Suzuki, author of Living Zen.
I inherited my grandfather's copy of Living Zen. It's a book that means a lot to me. The last quotation in the pigskin book is a favourite of mine too- one I try to keep in mind whenever the world gets particularly shouty- as it is doing at the moment- what with the US election and all: "Cease to cherish opinions."
The authors my grandfather quotes are- in order: Horace Gregory, Cervantes, the un-named author of a Life of Hazlitt, Goethe, the prophet Micah, and D.T. Suzuki, author of Living Zen.
I inherited my grandfather's copy of Living Zen. It's a book that means a lot to me. The last quotation in the pigskin book is a favourite of mine too- one I try to keep in mind whenever the world gets particularly shouty- as it is doing at the moment- what with the US election and all: "Cease to cherish opinions."
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...And yes, it's starting to get dangerous looking at everything as only "an opinion".
It also starts getting dangerous that the "good people" (I just choose to call it like that) don't have much more than that, than just an "opinion".
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I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken.
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Sometimes I think like I don't practice that enough on the outside, but then on the other side I discover: Many more don't do in an obvious way. So, for me, it becomes a matter of "Do you want to offer space to a crowd of wolves which only want to find a litte place to stab you in the back?".