"In our Western tradition we have this notion of humility as a kind of softness or weakness, but it’s more like elasticity. Stephen Hawking refers to genius as “radical humility,” for only when one truly and deeply does not know is one open to what is possible. I always think of James Joyce: “I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience.” Joyce is not championing a high-minded ideal, or an idea at all. He simply sets out to enter the fray, naked, without an agenda. If it takes James Joyce a million times, how many does it take the rest of us?" - Ran Ortner, an interview in The Sun
Who the Meek Are Not
ReplyDeleteNot the bristle-bearded Igors bent
under burlap sacks, not peasants knee-deep
in the rice paddy muck,
nor the serfs whose quarter-moon sickles
make the wheat fall in waves
they don't get to eat. My friend the Franciscan
nun says we misread
that word meek in the Bible verse that blesses them.
To understand the meek
(she says) picture a great stallion at full gallop
in a meadow, who —
at his master's voice — seizes up to a stunned
but instant halt.
So with the strain of holding that great power
in check, the muscles
along the arched neck keep eddying,
and only the velvet ears
prick forward, awaiting the next order.
--Mary Karr
Two very interesting definitions of humility.
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