sw00848d8

 Good morning.  My being here is a bit of a surprise
since thunderstorms passed through Springfield during
the night and today and tomorrow are forecast to be
rain days.  This is the first Sunday after Easter.  Went
back to reading my Lawrence Grant White translation
of Dante's Comedy.  Read seven sections of the
Paradiso.  Also read some more pages of Art and the
Intellect by Harold Taylor.  Both of these books I have
read before, but years ago.



words from one of my unpublished journals

 Each human is unique.  Each human is a creature who thinks and
a creature who feels.  And some of the deepest human feelings
are fueled by beliefs: beliefs that should not despise uniqueness,
but often do; beliefs that should not cancel thought, but often do.
I know that the ability to feel is just as necessary for our species'
survival as the ability to think.  I know the reptile brain in each of
us is quicker to act than the new brain.   //   But I also know that
howevermuch the flames of feelings, and all too often negative
ones, rise from our moralities, the cores of the great moralities
of this planet favor the flames of positive feelings, feelings possible
only for those who are able and willing to honor thought: Jesus
of Nazareth's, for example, when He urges us to love not only
our neighbors but also our enemies.  Please: whenever you and
I disdain others, we first of all disdain ourselves; whenever you
and I disdain others, we are saying that it is all right for others 
likewise to disdain us; whenever you and I disdain others, we join
those forces that disdain humanity.  The less we are willing to
live with each other, the more we will have to die with each other.

                                                                                    1983




Brian A. J. Salchert    2008-03-30