Stick with this to the finish. (Apple’s new holiday ad)
Tag: Children
That there is nothing weak about kindness and compassion
It has been remarked that Elijah was a kind man. I tell my daughters—and I have to say, listening to Elijah’s daughters speak, that got me choked up. I am sure those of you who have sons feel the same way, but there is something about daughters and their fathers. And I was thinking, I would want my daughters to know how much I love them, but I would also want them to know that being a strong man includes being kind. That there is nothing weak about kindness and compassion. There is nothing weak about looking out for others. There is nothing weak about being honorable. You are not a sucker to have integrity and to treat others with respect. I was sitting here and I was just noticing the Honorable Elijah E. Cummings and, you know, this is a title that we confer on all kinds of people who get elected to public office. We’re supposed to introduce them as honorable.
But Elijah Cummings was honorable before he was elected to office. There’s a difference. There is a difference if you are honorable and treated others honorably outside the limelight. On the side of a road; in a quiet moment, counseling somebody you work with; letting your daughters know you love them…
~ Excerpt from former U.S. President Barack Obama’s eulogy yesterday honoring Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland (Read full text of eulogy @ The Atlantic, October 25, 2019)
Sunday Morning
My son was almost 4 months old when he stopped breathing at daycare. It was his first day there, the first time I had left his side. Neither the doctors nor investigators could tell us why it happened…The question of my son’s death — the mystery of it, why he vanished — remains without answer. And so I ask the questions of life: What force grew this little child? How did those limbs form themselves from nothing inside of me? Why did I have the power to make him, but not to bring him back? Why are the things he saw on this planet so beautiful? Why did his eyes look at me the way they did? Where did love like this come from? I will never know who my child would have been, but I know his love. If there is a God, this is what he gave me.
~ Amber Scorah, Surviving the Death of My Son After the Death of My Faith (NY Times, May 31, 2019)
Notes: Photo by Ayla Maagdenberg titled “Grief“. Inspired by Sawsan: “Love is not a fin or a tail or an extra unnecessary tooth. It’ll be the last thing to pass through the evolutionary blades.”
Sunday Morning: Evolution?
Love
is
more than
evolution required.
~ David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest For a Moral Life (Random House, April 16, 2019). Revised from original: “I realized I loved her more than evolution required.”
Photography: Rachel @ 3 yrs old & Eric @ 1 yr
Incarnation?
Sculptures by Jose Cobo that were part of an installation titled “Incarnation.”
I read the background notes prepared by the artist here. Still don’t get it.
Mystified, mesmerized and looking for a helping hand to explain…
Notes:
- Source: 3 Quarks Daily.
- Inspired by: I believe that the justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity. ~ Glenn Gould, quoted in “Glenn Gould: Musical Individualist” (via Beth @ Alive on All Channels)