Can art change the world? God, I hope so.

“Constructive ideas (not wars) mark the forward progress of mankind. Art can change the world. Art is a communication that is more powerful and more real to any human being than any gun or war. It changes people’s opinions, style, ideas, and even sometimes people’s way of living. We should concentrate on art and peace, not hate and war. The day we can truly trust each other, there will be peace on Earth.” ~ Anonymous

Just when you think you had it all …

“We know that there is no help for us but from one another, that no hand will save us if we do not reach out our hand. And the hand that you reach out is empty, as mine is. You have nothing. You possess nothing. You own nothing. You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give.” ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Do you let yourself be enslaved by tyrants?

“The fundamental political question is why do people obey a government. The answer is that they tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants. Freedom from servitude comes not from violent action, but from the refusal to serve. Tyrants fall when the people withdraw their support.” ~ Étienne De La Boétie, The Politics Of Obedience

La clairvoyance “clear vision” is Camus’ word for lucidity

“On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.” (sans toute la clairvoyance possible) ~ Albert Camus from one of the more memorable passages of The Plague, in which he addresses the volunteer sanitary groups put together by citizens to clean the town’s overloaded hospitals.

Land of Plenty Leonard Cohen quotation

“For the millions in a prison
That wealth has set apart—
For the Christ who has not risen,
From the caverns of the heart

For the innermost decision
That we cannot but obey
For what’s left of our religion,
I lift my voice and pray;
May the lights in the land of Plenty
Shine on the truth someday.”

The masks we wear, inside and out

I started writing something about the masks we wear and this quotation from James Baldwin popped up in my email today:

“Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” ~ James Baldwin

Are the your dragons really princes and princesses?

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

What moves your heart?

“My heart is moved by all I cannot save: So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”  ~ Adrienne Rich

A message from Kings Bay Plowshares April 4, 2018

“We come in peace on this sorrowful anniversary of the martyrdom of a great prophet, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fifty years ago, on April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee as a reaction to his efforts to address “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism.”

Dr. King said, “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world (today) is my own government.” This remains true in the midst of our endless war on terror. The United States has embraced a permanent war economy.”

~ warresisters.org

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