Exciting Curiosity
Robert D. Richardson Jr., Emerson: The Mind on Fire University of California Peress, 1995 In the summer of 2017 I had the immense pleasure of reading Richardson’s stunning biography of the U.S. sage, and noted…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Share the Wealth with Jenny Lowe: An Appreciation of Leonard Woolf
Most educated people have read or at least heard of Virginia Woolf, the brilliant modernist writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group whose works include To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and A Room of…
Notice What You Notice
At the Richmond Heights gym She resembled Kathy Kelly, hair-wise She walking on the treadmill Reading Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel, The Sympathizer
Activating the Dead
When people who know one another have lived in the same landscape for a long time, they are surrounded by reminders of the dead in one another’s faces and in the landscape itself. In such…
An Ashram for Modern America
Eknath Easwaran, With My Love and Blessings: The Teaching Years 1966-1999 In Photographs & His Own Word Nilgiri Press, 2000 For Chris and Andrew As we contemplate what an urban-rural ashram could look like, an…
Japaneseness
In the 90s, phrases like “global village” and “global economy” were increasingly common. The technologies that have emerged since then allow us incredible possibilities of connecting and learning. Think … besides anime, what do we…
Anne Waldman on The Art of Writing, Reading, and Sharing—Winter Class/Arco-Online 2020
Imagine you are not alone. Consort with other writers. You are in a League of Writing. You are part of a conspiracy to lift the discourse and practice of writing higher. Think of your writing…
Put Your Body Where Your Mouth Is
In a time when it is the fashion to propose amendments to the Constitution, I would like to propose an amendment requiring (1) that when war breaks out the president and all consenting members of…
The Power of Footnotes
1. My idea of the ideal text is still the Talmud. I love the idea of parallel texts, with long, discursive footnotes and marginal commentary, texts commenting on texts. –Noam Chomsky, Mother Jones interview, 1987…
Perennially Good Advice
“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above…