Author: Mark J. Chmiel

Avoid Being Scattered

 But the fate of learned ambition is a proper subject for every scholar to consider; for who has not had occasion to regret the dissipation of great abilities in a boundless multiplicity of pursuits, to…

Not Now… But Someday

[Soviet critics] conceded that much of what [Vasily] Grossman had written was true, but to publish the novel at such a time would be harmful to the state. Marlov or Sartakov suggested that publication might…

Be Reasonable

Open your heart to the influence of the light which, from time to time, breaks in upon you:  when scruples importune you, which you in your lucid moments know to be vain, do not stand…

The Communist and the Buddhist

[Nikolay] Valentinov … recorded his shock at Lenin’s certainty not only that Marx and Engels were absolutely correct, but that no fundamental principle they enunciated, about anything, could ever be changed.  “Nothing in Marxism is…

Sitting

The night before I left, one of the patches containing painkiller came off, and Mev was in a lot of pain.  She wet the bed twice, vomited once.  For some reason, the alarm on the…

How Things Looked in 1990

All over the world, we are saturated by a contemporary culture of materialism, instant communications, and electronic luxury. Advertising bombards us with pulsating music, sexual imagery, and the urgent appeal to involve ourselves more and…

Advice from the Sages

I am sorry that I cannot say anything more comforting, for active love is a harsh and fearful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams thirsts for immediate action, quickly performed, and with…

Reading’s Joys

“Nothing is more beautiful than Plato; such reading, for those who are able to understand him, can give one happiness even in the most miserable circumstances.” –Simone Weil