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| Alleyway Art ~ Lafayette, Indiana |
Every now and then, I come across such an excellent reminder of why, twelve years ago, I chose to name this blog "The Quotidian Kit" [see quotes, right - hand column -> -> ->]. Most recently, I was struck by a series of observations during my reading of 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium. In the "Foreword," the editors comment at great length on "the mundane details that constitute a single life":
"Like so many of the best contemporary poems, a number of works included here awaken us to a sanctity or beauty that pulses beneath the quotidian skin of daily life . . . the idiosyncractic struggles and delights of ordinary people . . .
. . . profound meaning resides not in a moment of transcendence but in the un - romanticized rigors of daily life. . . .
. . . For so many contemporary poets mine for meaning in the mundane -- in the small particulars -- when we might expect them to cast their gaze on larger transcendent truths. Contemporary poets are not fooled by the seeming absence of light in the everday. They uncover and call our attention to the lower realm's inherent luminescence. . . .
. . . the best place to find the Infinite is in the finite, and the best place to find the universal is in the particular." (xi - xiii, emphasis added)
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| Larger Context ~ "Your Face Here"
Quotidian ~ Life |
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| Original "Woman in Gold" ~ completed 1907
by Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918) |
see also:
My blog
Mae's blog
Tin Can Telephone
Wabash
One of my friends in recovery says “life is so damn daily”, referring to the day-at-a-time nature of the sober life. I think she’s thinking of it sometimes as a daily slog.
ReplyDeleteThis is the exact opposite, and the antidote. Thank you.
Thanks Gary!
ReplyDelete