Most attribute the domain of night to evil because they can't see. People fear the shadows of the night because shadows represent the unknown, and the unknown is frightening. They assume evil lurks behind every shadow, in every corner not illuminated. But their fear of the unknown is often what really terrifies them. They find … Continue reading Quote for Today: M.R. Laver
exploration
Quote for Today: Rebecca Solnit
Suddenly I came out of my thoughts to notice everything around me again-the catkins on the willows, the lapping of the water, the leafy patterns of the shadows across the path. And then myself, walking with the alignment that only comes after miles, the loose diagonal rhythm of arms swinging in synchronization with legs in … Continue reading Quote for Today: Rebecca Solnit
Quote for Today: Italo Calvino
Myth is the hidden part of every story, the buried part, the region that is still unexplored because there are as yet no words to enable us to get there. The narrator's voice in the tribal assembly is not enough to relate the myth. One needs special times and places, exclusive meetings; the words alone are not enough, … Continue reading Quote for Today: Italo Calvino
Quote for Today: Rachel Carson
Eventually man, too, found his way back to the sea. Standing on its shores, he must have looked out upon it with wonder and curiosity, compounded with an unconscious recognition of his lineage. He could not physically re-enter the ocean as the seals and whales had done. But over the centuries, with all the … Continue reading Quote for Today: Rachel Carson
Quote for Today: Alice Munro
A story is not like a road to follow … it's more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these … Continue reading Quote for Today: Alice Munro
Unearthly Appetites: Italo Calvino’s The Distance of the Moon
Humanity crosses increasing distances searching for new territory to explore. Is the distance between and within us threatening our survival? Italo Calvino published Cosmicomics, a book of fantastic short stories in 1965. Each story was inspired by an accepted scientific theory. The first and most well known story is entitled "The Distance of the Moon". … Continue reading Unearthly Appetites: Italo Calvino’s The Distance of the Moon
Window on the Universe: The Hubble Space Telescope Turns 25
Deep space photography explores the craftsmanship of the cosmos. Where do we draw the dividing line between art and science? On April 24, 1990, the Discovery Shuttle mission STS-31 launched the Hubble Space Telescope into a low orbit around the Earth, the result of decades of planning, research, funding and construction. It was not the first telescope in … Continue reading Window on the Universe: The Hubble Space Telescope Turns 25
Quote for Today: Robert Green Ingersoll
Until every soul is freely permitted to investigate every book, and creed, and dogma for itself, the world cannot be free. Mankind will be enslaved until there is mental grandeur enough to allow each man to have his thought and say. This earth will be a paradise when men can, upon all these questions differ, … Continue reading Quote for Today: Robert Green Ingersoll
Quote for Today: Emily Danforth
Then, one on either side, they walked me to the shore, which was black and endless. But there was a fire waiting. And there was a little meal laid out on a blanket. And there was a whole world beyond that shoreline, beyond the forest, beyond the knuckle mountains, beyond, beyond, beyond, not beneath the … Continue reading Quote for Today: Emily Danforth
Quote for Today: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. --Ralph Waldo Emerson