Freeing up the Imagination
Not too long ago, I heard a tape of the memorial service held at Stanford University Chapel at the death of Eric Voegelin. On the tape, Professor William Havard, I think, remarked that Voegelin read…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Today’s One-Liner (#134)
I was crushed, overwhelmed by having to face what the nation of Goethe, Schiller, and Kant was capable of. –Rachmil Bryks, May God Avenge Their Blood: A Holocaust Memoir Triptych, trans. Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
Today’s One-Liner (#133)
The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint. –Léon Bloy, quoted by Brad Miner
Today’s One-Liner (#132)
We must collect all kinds of sayings and proverbs. –Isaac Bashevis Singer, Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: The War Years, 1939-1945 , edited by David Stromberg
Remembering Andrew Wimmer by Suzanne Renard
Suzanne gave me permission to post the following text she wrote one day after Andrew died at Barnes Jewish Hospital, A text I sent Marcia, Jan 23, 2024. As I listen to the outpouring of…
Today’s One-Liner (#131)
If we respected the tenth commandment, the four commandments that precede it would be superfluous. –Rene Girard, Maxim #90, in All Desire Is a Desire for Being: Essential Writings, edited by Cynthia L. Haven
A Simple, Extraordinary Gift/2
I am engrossed these days rereading Nadezhda Mandelstam’s inspiring memoir, Hope Against Hope. It’s an account of her life with her husband, the acclaimed poet Osip Mandelstam who ran afoul of the revolutionaries of the…
A Simple, Extraordinary Gift/1
“And I am with you, too, I won’t leave you now, I will go with you for the rest of my life,” the dear, deeply felt words of Grushenka came from somewhere near him. And…
Today’s One-Liner (#130)
God deliver us from sullen saints! Saint Teresa of Ávila, in Rosemary Broughton, Praying with Teresa of Ávila
Today’s One-Liner (#129)
My idea in my story telling is to make Jews better Jews, and Christians better Christians, and in general, if possible at all, make man a little bit warmer, so he will not feel crushed…