GREAT FLOOD X AFTER ICE AGE?

 A

AJC BOSE X PLANT X CHLOROFORM 

A

HKU 

Another reminder of death’s omnipresence appeared soon after, when Bashō saw a small child, perhaps two years old, abandoned by the road. The early 1680s were years of famine, flood, fire, social turmoil, and desperate poverty, and the sight was not uncommon. Still, for a modern reader, this incident is the most difficult to accept of any in Bashō’s life: he tossed some food to the child and rode on, thinking about fate, finally deciding that, however sorrowful, the child’s abandonment was “heaven’s will.” The haiku he wrote afterward, though, is an undisguised rebuke—to society, to poetry, and to the writer himself: The cries of monkeys are hard for a person to bear— what of this child, given to autumn winds? saruwo kiku hito sutego ni aki no kaze ikani          

a

“individuals are honest only to the extent that suits them (including their desire to please others)”
― Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

a

“Ownership is not limited to material things. It can also apply to points of view. Once we take ownership of an idea — whether it’s about politics or sports — what do we do? We love it perhaps more than we should. We prize it more than it is worth. And most frequently, we have trouble letting go of it because we can’t stand the idea of its loss. What are we left with then? An ideology — rigid and unyielding.”

a

“Resisting temptation and instilling self-control are general human goals, and repeatedly failing to achieve them is a source of much of our misery.”

a

“Thoreau wrote, “Simplify! Simplify!” And, indeed, simplification is one mark of real genius.

a