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Posts tagged ‘beauty’

Sep 21

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Indra’s Lesson

There is a wonderful story in one of the Upanishads about the god Indra. Now, it happened at this time that a great monster had enclosed all the waters of the earth, so there was a terrible drought, and the world was in a very bad condition. It took Indra quite a while to realize that he had a box of thunderbolts and that all he had to do was drop a thunderbolt on the monster and blow him up. When he did that, the waters flowed, and the world was refreshed, and Indra said, “What a great boy am I.”
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Sep 3

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The Valley of the Shadow of Death

We were at my Nana’s house watching TV when I had this strange feeling that the air was being sucked out of the room. I yelled for everyone to get down on the floor and I covered them with blankets. Then, all of the windows in the house exploded inward and there was this overpowering sound like a train coming toward us. I ran outside and stood in the driveway looking at what must have been an F4 tornado about half a mile in the distance. It was uprooting and destroying everything in it’s path and heading directly for me.

I was just staring at the blackness of the tornado as it ripped up houses and trees in its path. But I couldn’t move. My family was yelling at me to get out of the way and run but I was paralyzed with the insatiable curiosity of staring death in the face. It was just a few yards off and I marveled at the beauty of it and the perfection of nature.
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Mar 27

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Sheldrake on Beauty in Nature

Is beauty an aesthetic creation by God for human consumption or is it something more deeply rooted in nature? Why is there so much beauty in the song of birds or the feathers of the peacock? This clip is from Sheldrake’s discussion with Matthew Fox in the video, Accessing the Mystic from 2006.

Mar 27

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What Is Dune?

As many times as I’ve read Dune and watched the several versions of the movie, I’m still left guessing what Frank Herbert was up to. I haven’t read anything about Herbert’s life but I’m guessing he spent some time in either the Middle East or North Africa. The landscape of Dune is defined by the desolation of desert and the scarcity of important resources like water. I had seen the David Lynch movie several times before ever reading the book. I asked a friend once if the book was good. She said, “if the book is as beautiful tree in full bloom, then the movie is the same tree dead in the winter. The structure is the same but the beauty is missing.” Well … I had to read the book.
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Dec 2

72 Lines About 36 Women

Kathleen says, “I was disappointed that I didn’t make the list of 36. Then again, you were my first real kiss.”

Heather One was my first kiss, when she pulled me close I was lost in bliss.

Amy really wanted to get away. Her wish was answered on a tragic day.

Kelly played all boy sports. Now I’m sure she’s playing on women’s courts.

Stephanie passed me notes in class. She’d act all innocent when we went to Mass.

Tamara cheered for the maroon and gold. She had a crush on me, I was told.

Nicole was my first real beauty. I saw her recently, she’s still a cutie. Read more

Sep 24

Disciplined As a Symphony

There is an excellent new article over at Knowledge@Wharton, Teamwork in a Shock Trauma Unit: New Lessons in Leadership. This is an lesson in what can happen when even one member of the team is out of sync.

I was at a symphony a few weeks ago and marveled at the precision and team work that goes into a symphony. I think that we’ll be seeing more and more articles like this observing leadership and team work dynamics outside of traditional business. For all of the books, journals, experts, and consultants that are out there business leadership and team work seem to be pretty poor compared to something as complex and disciplined as a symphony. It’s as if each individual playing becomes one mind while they are playing. It’s such a delicate balance that if even one individual is off by so much as a note or octave the whole theatre will notice it and for a moment be distracted from the beauty of it all. It reminds me of James Hillman’s book, We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy—And the World’s Getting Worse.