A Quick Word... From Alessandro Baricco

Who's he? Well he's an Italian author, and if the following passage is anything to go by, probably a pretty bloody good one at that. I must admit this piece was stolen from Jonathan Carroll's Blog, which is a fine and splendid place full of wonderful things to read, this being just one of them. I do recommend you check it out.

Blogging has been slow of late, needing to compensate for that which is happening very fast, namely the end of a job (or two), the end of living in a house (or two), and moving from one city to another, beginning a new and exciting chapter (or two) of my life. Also I'm turning 20 next week. All this will be thoroughly documented of course, but for now there is much to do and much wanting to be done, so I ask that you patiently wait, while I leave you in the hands of someone much more talented than I. Over to you Mr. Baricco:

"He puts down the pen, folds the sheet of paper, and slips it inside an envelope. He stands up, takes from his trunk a mahogany box, lifts the lid, lets the letter fall inside, open and unaddressed. In the box are hundreds of identical envelopes, open and unaddressed. He thinks that somewhere in the world he will meet a woman who has always been his woman. Every now and again he regrets that destiny has been so stubbornly determined to make him wait with such indelicate tenacity, but with time he has learned to consider the matter with great serenity. Almost every day, for years now, he has taken pen in hand to write to her. He has no names or addresses to put on the envelopes: but he has a life to recount. And to whom, if not to her? He thinks that when they meet it will be wonderful to place the mahogany box full of letters on her lap and say to her, 'I was waiting for you.'

"She will open the box and slowly, when she so desires, read the letters one by one. As she works her way back up the interminable thread of blue ink she will gather up the years-- the days, the moments-- that that man, before he ever met her, had already given to her. Or perhaps more simply, she will overturn the box and astonished at that comical snowstorm of letters, she will smile, saying to that man, 'You are mad.' And she will love him forever."

-Alessandro Baricco

A Quick Word... From Alan Watts

I've often been questioned for the fact that my degree at University - Arts - doesn't lead anywhere. Wouldn't I rather do something like Medicine? Hell, even Arts-Law is a start! This is my favourite video of the year so far. An absolute gem, and best of all, it makes me feel comfy with where I'm at for now. You can keep your careers.

-Lyndon

A Quick Word... From Charles Bukowski

You may have noticed that I like to throw a quote between each of my blogs. This is an exception, no editing, Bukowski goes in exactly as Bukowski is. This one's a mantra, hopefully it grabs you by the throat just as much as it gets me.

Also, with thanks to Jonathan Carroll.

-Lyndon

Air and Light and Time and Space

“You know, I’ve either had a family, a job, something
has always been in the
way
but now
I’ve sold my house, I’ve found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
For the first time in my life I’m going to have a place and the time to
create.”

No baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your
body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquake, bombardment,
flood and fire.

Baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.”

-Charles Bukowski

A Quick Word... From Cory Doctorow

"Funny, for all the surveillance, Osama Bin Laden is still free - and we're not. Guess who's winning the war on terror?"

- Cory Doctorow

A Quick Word... From Voltaire

"Let us read and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world."

- Voltaire

A Quick Word... From William Shakespeare

"Love all. Trust a few. Do wrong to none."

- William Shakespeare

A Quick Word... From Neil Gaiman

"There are only two things that any writer is allowed to be obsessed by, and they are love and death. And I think that's a huge, great big, clunking cliché, and like all great big clunking clichés, it's true."

- Neil Gaiman