What can you know about a person? They shift
in the light. You can’t light up all sides at once. Add
a second light and you get a second darkness”
— Richard Siken, “Portrait of Fryderyk in Shifting Light”, War of the Foxes
Category: Commonplace
Quotes, art, questions, videos, podcasts, music, and whatever else inspires.
Cocoa Hooves // Glass Animals
Come on you hermit
Why don’t you play nice?
Why don’t you toy with sex and violence?
Why don’t you stare back
Into my huge eye?
Why don’t you set my wings on fire?
Nothing New Under the Sun
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”
— Ecclesiastes 1:9, New International Version
John Steinbeck
I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen.”
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent
Walt Whitman
Let others dispose of questions, I dispose of nothing, I arouse
unanswerable questions,
Who are they I see and touch, and what about them?
What about these likes of myself that draw me so close by tender
directions and indirections?”
— Walt Whitman, “Myself and Me”, On the Beach at Night Alone
Emotional Vocabulary
“I work with people who have limited emotional vocabulary and as a result the intensity of their negative emotions and experiences is heightened because they can’t describe their feelings (especially their negative feelings). That’s why this list is heavily focused on negative emotions/ experiences. Being able to clearly identify how we are feeling has been shown to reduce this intensity of experience because it re-engages our rational mind.”
— Geoffrey Roberts
Keeping Tabs // Cuco
And if you need me, then you know where to find me
I’m feeling lost, I just need someone to guide me
Don’t wanna feel left out
Please, understand me now
But If you can’t, then it’s alright, I’ll always be around
Key Workers
Joan Didion
Questionnaire
- How much poison are you willing to eat for the success of the free market and global trade? Please name your preferred poisons.
- For the sake of goodness, how much evil are you willing to do? Fill in the following blanks with the names of your favorite evils and acts of hatred.
- What sacrifices are you prepared to make for culture and civilization? Please list the monuments, shrines, and works of art you would most willingly destroy.
- In the name of patriotism and the flag, how much of our beloved land are you willing to desecrate? List in the following spaces the mountains, rivers, towns, farms you could most readily do without.
- State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes, the energy sources, the kinds of security, for which you would kill a child. Name, please, the children whom you would be willing to kill.
— Questionnaire by Wendell Berry
Lisa Marie Blair 