Regarding the Dreyfus Affair
“It is my duty to speak up; I will not be an accessory to the fact. If I were, my nights would be haunted by the spectre of that innocent man so far away, suffering…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
Oy Vey Iz Mir
“If it didn’t work out God mustn’t have wanted it to. You, Tsaytl, just weren’t meant to be a fine lady with a house full of grand things and two parents who could finally enjoy…
Finding Equanimity: Share the Wealth with Andrew Wimmer on Sunday 6 August
At the beginning of this calendar year I undertook to write something more or less daily and to post it to a Substack page. Some political, some personal. I saw it mostly as a way…
The Wonderful Sei Shōnagon
No one had sharper ears than the Minister of the Treasury. He truly could have heard the fall of a mosquito’s eyelash. The mountain dove is a very pure-hearted and touching bird—they say it can…
Journals and Commonplace Books
It was becoming a habit with [Thoreau] now to work back over his journals and to reread books, to reengage old subjects in the light of new interests, to revise and recopy his own earlier…
Train Wholeheartedly
One who practices the teachings of these great scriptures will become aware of the unity of life, and this awareness will give constant strength and inspiration to those who seek to turn anger into compassion,…
Two Distant Worlds?
There is nothing in mere scholarship. The object of study is to find means of knowing God and realizing Him. A holy man had a book. When asked what it contained, he opened it and…
Soul Sentiment from the Nineteenth Century
I onward go, I stop,With hinged knees and steady hand, to dress wounds;I am firm with each—the pangs are sharp, yet unavoidable;One turns to me his appealing eyes—(poor boy! I never knew you,Yet I think…
This Is Because That Is…
I am spending my mornings reading the riveting new book by Gary Saul Morson, Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter. A short while back, I posted a…
In the Old Days
“You see that old man? He’s from my father’s village. I met him years ago, when I was young. I only met him twice. He just told me he was concerned about me, so he…