THERESARRT`S QUESTIONS #3, 4, & 5

  Theresarrt`s Questions;    A reply to questions 3, 4, & 5.

Theresarrt http://journals.aol.com/theresarrt7/TheresaWilliams-author/entries/740  answered her queries so beautifully that she gave me the courage to comment, asking her to question me. Her queries are so thought provoking that I can`t answer the five in one post. In this post, I`ll try to reply to #3, 4, & 5.

3.  What would you say to Freud in an e-mail.

To; siggief@heaven.com

From: deabt@aol.com

Subject: Psychology

 

65 years after your death, you must be proud to remain the most quoted Psychologist in the literature. And your secretary, Otto Rank, has done pretty well too! Of all your associates, he remains the most profound.

4.  Many people have a metaphor which guides their lives.  For example, for the fictional character Siddhartha it is the river.  Siddhartha's final epiphany is that the answers to life's questions are in the river's voice.  Do you have a central metaphor in your life...or are you looking for one?

Easy…..ART, in all of its manifestations.

 

5.  What is something you wrote when you were a little boy that gave you joy?  Try to recreate that piece of writing here.

called to dinner,

the boy and girl descend

from their bedrooms

where they must stay

in grandma`s house.  

 

quietly, they pass the

dining room

through the kitchen

where grown-ups eat

to the shed.  

 

unheated

quickly

they eat

in grandma`s house.    

 

V

 

Theresarrt`s Questions # 2

Theresarrt`s Questions;    A reply to question #2 !!

Theresarrt http://journals.aol.com/theresarrt7/TheresaWilliams-author/entries/740  answered her queries so beautifully that she gave me the courage to comment, asking her to question me. Her queries sre so thought provoking that I can`t answer the five in one post. In this post, I`ll try to reply to #2 !

2.  In your opinion, what are the particular challenges humanity faces in these times in terms of finding and living a fulfilling life?

Theresa, I wrote this entry on October 31, 2004. Russell was commenting on the possibility that the United States could break the historical cycle. Fifty years after his writing, the possibility is very bleak!

 

  A COMMENTARY ON LIBERALISM

  My journal has been in existence for more than a year and I have never written an entry remotely political. However, in listening to the barrage of advertising on radio and television, from local to regional to national, I am again reminded of one point that rankles me. That is, the acceptance of the word "Liberal" as defining something that is negative and, somehow, to be avoided like Communism or Nazism.  

 I would like to quote from the Introductory to "The History of Western Philosophy" by the great English Philosopher Bertrand Russell. [pg. xxiii, Introductory]  

 

   "In general, important civilizations start with a rigid and superstitious system, gradually relaxed, and leading, at a certain stage, to a period of brilliant genius, while the good of the old tradition remains and the evil inherent in its dissolution has not yet developed. But, as the evil unfolds, it leads to anarchy, thence, inevitably, to a new tyranny, producing a new synthesis secured by a new system of dogma. The doctrine of liberalism is an attempt to escape from this endless oscillation. The essence of liberalism is an attempt to secure a social order not based on irrational dogma, and insuring stability without involving more restraints than are necessary for the preservation of the community. Whether this attempt can succeed only the future can determine." 

V

Theresarrt`s Questions; A reply to question #1

Theresarrt http://journals.aol.com/theresarrt7/TheresaWilliams-author/entries/740  answered her queries so beautifully that she gave me the courage to comment, asking her to question me. Her queries sre so thought provoking that I can`t answer the five in one post. In this post, I`ll try to reply to #1 !

1.  The epigram on your blog is:  "to grow is to be anxious."  Would you elaborate on why this statement has such a strong appeal for you?

For me, May`s quote “To grow is to be anxious” addresses the question of neurotic symptomatology at its core. Why do our own “demons” continually exert such power in our everyday lives? No matter the constellation of symptoms defending our ego against the world [ depression; obsessions; compulsions;narcissism; etc. ] they have become so familiar to us that they seem to BE us! These defensive postures become such a reflexive display for us that they define our character to others. {Boy, she`s self-centered; He`s really obsessive}

 

May`s quote focuses us on why we invest so much energy in our comfortable defenses. The central issue to being human is to Become; to be all that we can reach. Yet each positive striving for growth is accompanied by a fear of the unknown; in actuality, fear of dissolution.

 

Rather than face this most terrible of fears, we fall back on the defensive systems that we have learned through our life experience. {Example; if you place a rat in the center of a room, it will automatically run to safety, to the wall.}

 

For May, we must remember, to the best of our ability, that every striving to Become, to grow, is accompanied by anxiety. Anxiety is an organism`s natural response to new situations and must be understood as such. It is our ability to face these situations of growth and do our best to not allow the opportunities to pass; to not be swallowed up in the comforting defenses that we have nourished all of our lives, that permit us to Become what our abilities will allow!

 

A tall order, for sure! Many Existentialists call this the striving to become a Hero or an Artist. For them, and for me, it is what makes us an image of the Creator.

 

V

 

Something Wrong? A Poem

 

There`s something wrong with her

 A certain sadness, lingers in the air

 Pronounces her passing,

 as clouds conceal the warming rays. 

 

Lifelong burdens, never truly gone,

The grimace in her sometimes smile

reveals the weight of destiny.  

 

People question her activity

the glee she sees in camera`s lens

captured one by one

and every day a symphony.  

 

Yet lying down at night, alone

awaiting Somnus` divine repose

She cannot help but think of things,

denying life its happiness.  

 

The nights are endless, yet

an inkling, a spark is kindled

from the beauty

a lens allowed her.

 

In reverie, she thinks

of butterflies and flowers

of children`s smiles

of moonlit nights

and stars divine.

 

Awakened with a start,

a smile upon her lips,

she stretches like a kitten

her thoughts in happiness.

 

Perhaps the camera

brings focus to her life

What is gone is done

and Art is happiness.

 

C 2005  Deabler, V.T.

" Purgatory " A Poem

“PURGATORY”

 

When death approached, I bowed my head

To Morpheus` crown,

not knowing that my soul would stay

in this body, tho` embalmed.

 

We see the soul as suffering

when purgatory bound,

that place unknown to mortals

is merely underground.

 

C 2005  Deabler, V.T.

Thanks

I just wanted to thank those who emailed or posted their request to be added to the readers of "James and the Animals" and  "Carrie". I won`t take up any more time or space here for reference or posting from that journal.

V

Saul Bellow [1915--2005]

  Saul Bellow – Biography

Saul Bellow was born in Lachine, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, in 1915, and was raised in Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago, received his Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1937, with honors in sociology and anthropology, did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, and served in the Merchant Marine during World War II.

Mr. Bellow's first novel, Dangling Man, was published in 1944, and his second, The Victim, in 1947. In 1948 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent two years in Paris and traveling in Europe, where he began The Adventures of Augie March, which won the National Book Award for fiction in 1954. Later books include Seize The Day (1956), Henderson The Rain King (1959), Herzog (1964), Mosby's Memoirs and Other Stories (1968), and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970). His most recent work of fiction, Humboldt's Gift (1975), was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Both Herzog and Mr. Sammler's Planet were awarded the National Book Award for fiction. Mr. Bellow's first non-fiction work, To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account, published on October 25,1976, is his personal and literary record of his sojourn in Israel during several months in 1975.

In 1965 Mr. Bellow was awarded the International Literary Prize for Herzog, becoming the first American to receive the prize. In January 1968 the Republic of France awarded him the Croix de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, the highest literary distinction awarded by that nation to non-citizens, and in March 1968 he received the B'nai B'rith Jewish Heritage Award for "excellence in Jewish literature", and in November 1976 he was awarded the America's Democratic Legacy Award of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the first time this award has been made to a literary personage.

 

Saul Bellow was my favorite writer inEnglish and the author of my favorite American novel, " Herzog ". Rest in peace, my friend.

V

"CARRIE " Part 1 {Book 2 of 'James and the Animals'}

  " CARRIE " Part 1  {Book 2 of James and the Animals}  

Everytime Sean opened his eyes in the morning, he felt the grin on his face. Then, the scent of Carrie, lying next to him. He felt her, spoonlike, lying under his left arm. Snuggling closer, he buried his face in her blonde hair, then kissed the nape of her neck. Carrie touched his hand, pulling it tighter around her, and fell back to sleep.

 

 Sean had never been so happy in his life. They had met and fallen in love during the search for the murderer of Carrie`s husband. The pursuit of the vampire Alucard had led to their meeting with Dr. Abraham van Helsing and Sean`s eventual hiring by the Doctor as the United States` consultant to Interpol, reporting directly to van Helsing. Their division of the international police agency was devoted to the solving of crimes of a serious nature that cross international boundaries.

 

 The work was challenging and invigorating, its only drawback the amount of time he had to be away from Carrie and his family. Carrie had three children, two girls approaching their teen years; Ann and Amie, and a four year old son, Wolfgang.

 

The girls` father was James Corgan, whose murder by the vampire Alucard had brought them together. It was the father of the boy that had caused them such great difficulty. Their pursuit of Alucard was resolved by his transformation to being human after sharing the kiss of a pious woman. It had been quite troubling to Sean that the woman who shared her humanness with him had been Carrie. His jealousy had further erupted when she shared with him the news of her pregnancy by Alucard.

 

 They had spent many hours with Carrie`s psychologist, Dr. Elaina Koss, and Sean had shared many an evening with van Helsing and his friend Lieutenant John Kelly, who had shared the Alucard pursuit. With their support, and Carrie`s unquestioned love, Sean was finally able to accept Wolfie`s parentage and open himself to the wonderful life with which he had been blessed.

 

 

C 2005  Deabler, V.T.

 

 

Hi, journallers. I usually post the first few entrys of my novel in both journals. That way, if anyone wants to read the book, they can be added to the list of those reading the private journal. Enjoy!

V

A Poem " ETERNITY "

  Reflecting on the morning dew

 and smiling on the sea,

 the sun arises, dawning

 and sees me, `neath the tree.  

 

 It only seems a lifetime

 since the ground was rent for me,

 flowers dropping by the petal

 I approached eternity.

 

V

c2005, Deabler, V.T.

A Poem " On Dialysis "

 

A living sentence

to a machine

that gargles and spits,

cleansing the blood.

 

Ever alert to beeps

that may signal disaster

or a blip of nothing,

sleep comes slowly.

 

Oh! these wonderful people

and their dignity,

never touched by the tubes

tieing them to reality.

 

And the technicians and nurses

steeling themselves

and giving sustenance,

from their hearts of courage.

 

c 2005  Deabler, V.T.