The Unclad Soul

“Life does not give you big, simple answers. It demands patience, focus, and an open, intelligent mind to gather the pieces of a puzzle and fit them together into a coherent whole. Nothing worth knowing is ever easily learned.”  ~ Lisa Cach, Writer/Novelist

“The truly educated become conscious. They become self-aware. They do not lie to themselves. Thought is a dialogue with one’s inner self. Those who think ask questions, questions those in authority do not want asked. They remember who we are, where we come from and where we should go. They remain eternally skeptical and distrustful of power. And they know that this moral independence is the only protection from the radical evil that results from collective unconsciousness. The capacity to think is the only bulwark against any centralized authority that seeks to impose mindless obedience. There is a huge difference, as  Socrates  understood, between teaching people what to think and teaching them how to think.”  ~ Chris Hedges, Author/Journalist

  “The sea answers all questions.”  – E.B. White, Writer/Linguist 

“Everybody’s gotta learn; nobody’s born knowing.”   ―   Harper Lee, Novelist

“Only my books anoint me,  and a few friends,  those who reach into my veins.”  ~ Anne Sexton, "The Complete Poems"

 “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”  – Roald Dahl, Novelist

There is an etching by the 18 th century artist Francisco de Goya that I find haunting and relevant. The picture shows an artist, perhaps a painter or writer, slumped over his desk. His pen and sketching paper are there. His face is buried in his arms that are resting over his head. We cannot see his face in sleep. We can only see his thick black hair tousled around his head. Behind him in the darkness are flying creatures that look like fierce bats and sneering owls. Next to him reclining on the floor is a large cat with big eyes with its head erect. It looks startled. The title of the drawing is, “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.” Goya’s amazing pieces, there were 80 in all, were attempts to confront the political and religious institutions of his day, institutions that had turned cruel and oppressive and brutalized the common defenseless people of that era. His etchings were also wake up calls to fellow artists to use their talents to expose the intolerance, criminal...

While sitting in the doctor’s office the other day I picked up a copy of “Parents” magazine. Not only does it have excellent articles with terrific parenting advice but I couldn’t help noticing the diversity of the people both children and adults in every single picture in the magazine. The ads, the photos accompanying each article, everywhere you turned a page, there was a different ethnic group represented: Blacks, Asian, Latino, and Anglo. I thought, yes, that is really what our society looks like. We are a huge melting pot of nationalities, races, cultures, ethnicities, likes and dislikes. What a beautiful, pluralistic, multicultural country we live in. Think of what we could accomplish if as an entire nation we totally welcomed, fully accepted, and genuinely embraced the diversity of the people that we are? Think of the variety of artists, writers, actors, musicians, poets, and other creative, thinking people we have in this country? They are a mix of races all of them;...