Story telling and healing trauma

"To tell a story and have it and the teller recognized and respected is still one of the best methods we have of overcoming trauma."--Rebecca Solnit, Harper's magazine, october 2014, p. 4

Proust on Style

In a pocket notebook here from 1910, Proust calls artistic reality "a relation, a law joining differnt facts." An artowrk establises connections between different worlds. That kind of reality, Proust writes, requires style, which is itself a series of connections in the material, an "alliance of words."

Style is not something extraneous to an artwork, but part of its essence: "A work of art only begins to exist from the moment that style appears."

Review of "Marcel Proust and Swann's Way: 100th Aniversary" at the Morgan Library and Museum  in NYC, from the New York Times.

Tea

"Wan and the Remarkable Shrub"
It has a perfection hitherto unknown among the liquids of the world. It cheers, yet without any disconcerting effect upon the speech or movements. It warms where one is cold and cools where one is hot. Already every trace of fatigue and despondency has vanished, leaving us inspired for further deeds of public usefulness, eagerto accomplish other acts of justice. It stimulates, invigorates, rejuvenates, animates, lubricates."

found at the Brahmah Museum of Tea and Coffee
www.brahmahmuseum.co.uk

Humanities are the way to freedom

"The reason we teach the humanities is that we're interested in creating a person who understands the world, understands beauty, understands thinking, and knows how to seek wisdom. While the sciences and math are very important, the foundation of society and of democracy is in the humanities, and it's certainly the way to freedom."

--Earl Shorris, "The Clemente Course in the Humanities," Everyday Heroes: 50 Americans Changing the World One Nonprofit at a Time."