Must talk to Giovanni about water today. I asked Andrew about it last night but he didn't seem to know much, or be very interested. He agreed it was a cost issue (water consumption when BV is running at full capacity). Said I should talk to Giovanni about it today. But the environmental / water conservation aspect is as important (and sends a messsage - that we care about the land).
"Community, in its most satisfying forms involves the whole person, including the body. It
nurtures us as individuals precisely by directing our attention and our care outward toward
those to whom we are bound. And bound is the right word. In a Community, we are bound by
ties of obligation and responsibility. To be in a community is to have the self spun out into the
world rather than in upon itself.
. . .
Finally, I'll briefly note the work of Albert Borgmann, who reminds us that to be for
community does not mean that we are against technology, per se. Borgmann has been a
champion of communities of celebration centered on focal things and focal practices: in short,
things (not devices) that have a commanding presence, that focus our attention and draw us out
of ourselves. All of that requires a good deal of unpacking. I did a bit of that here. I'll wrap up
this section with a line from Borgmann's Crossing the Postmodern Divide. "There is an
interlacing of communities of celebration," Borgmann writes, "that provides for a community
of communities rather than a society of sects." A good final word for this section, I think.
Re-framings
Simone Weil, The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind:
“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human
soul. It is one of the hardest to define. A human being has roots by virtue of his real,
active and natural participation in the life of a community which preserves in living
shape certain particular treasures of the past and certain particular expectations for the
future.”
An excerpt from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
“You see,” he went on calmly, “measured by your standards here, I'm a failure. I
couldn't buy even one of your cornfields. I've enjoyed a great many things, but I've
got nothing to show for it all.”
“But you show for it yourself, Carl. I'd rather have had your freedom than my land.”
Carl shook his head mournfully. “Freedom so often means that one isn't needed
anywhere. Here you are an individual, you have a background of your own, you
would be missed. But off there in the cities there are thousands of rolling stones like
me. We are all alike; we have no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing. When one
of us dies, they scarcely know where to bury him. Our landlady and the delicatessen
man are our mourners, and we leave nothing behind us but a frock-coat and a fiddle,
or an easel, or a typewriter, or whatever tool we got our living by. All we have ever
managed to do is to pay our rent, the exorbitant rent that one has to pay for a few
square feet of space near the heart of things. We have no house, no place, no people
of our own. We live in the streets, in the parks, in the theaters. We sit in restaurants
and concert halls and look about at the hundreds of our own kind and shudder.”
Alexandra was silent. She sat looking at the silver spot the moon made on the surface
of the pond down in the pasture. He knew that she understood what he meant. At last
she said slowly, “And yet I would rather have Emil grow up like that than like his
two brothers. We pay a high rent, too, though we pay differently. We grow hard and
heavy here. We don't move lightly and easily as you do, and our minds get stiff. If the
world were no wider than my cornfields, if there were not something beside this, I
wouldn't feel that it was much worth while to work. No, I would rather have Emil
like you than like them. I felt that as soon as you came.” Sacasas Conviviality #4
St Ben's rule Ch VII - on saying the Night Office (Matins at midnight, study after! until dawn)
were they all sleep deprived? Must find Ampleforth monk's talk on 12 degrees of humility. Ben's or the translator's version is appalling. 'Rule 12, creep around looking at the ground, looking ashamed of yourself and your sins.' That's the Rule's aspiration for human beings.
Said Bonjour to Jacques after med, and he asked me how I was and was I OK about last night, which was nice. I said I tres bien, and that he was right, I make too much blah blah. He is having a desert day today - off on his own, no food. Giovanni leaves at 5ish, Katherine Jarvis arrives same plane 4.35. Try and get 5 minutes with him to ask/talk about water. Dropped Linda at Vivonne to catch her train to Poitiers and Paris. She's an oblate, and we talked about mentorship. She said two of hers died on her. I didn't make the obvious joke. We had a nice hug goodbye.
Belle's thought for the bank holiday
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
—Edward Everett Hale
Be Sober.
—Belle
H fessed up. Funny how sad that makes me feel, and somehow lonely. Also encouraged, weirdly. I don't want to be where she is today, not least because I'm afraid I'd just give up. (ha ha - see below)
I carefully picked out a reading for midday med from Sacasas above. Andrew asked me to read the daily scripture. Then forgot about it. Pretty sure he wasn't timing the med either, or let it run on, because Delyth turned up late. G not worried about the bridge. Yes, of course, because there never was anything to worry about. And Rouel probably wasn't worried either. The only person who is or was is Andrew.
Jack is having a desert day. Is he paying €18 for the privilege? Why didn't he have one yesterday?
Raised the water issue over lunch. G ignorant and frankly silly. Andrew odd. Forget about it. In the end, it's their problem.
New guests - Arnaud and Pascale, staying in the hunting lodge, from Grenoble, and Katherine Jarvis, from Shrewsbury, until the 18th. Nice supper. Missed meditation (finishing off bathroom). Kept schtumm with Jacques over supper - we were at the end of the table, focusing on stopping our little table wobbling.
I'm cheating and I don't think I care - two shots of Jean Christophe's kirsch. Very nice, very smooth, nice hot hit in the gut. The real test is tomorrow, and the days after that. The bottle's still there. And Naxos looms. Sent H a commiseratory / confessional text. And then went back for a final night cap before I went to sleep.
I've finished the bathroom (carpet, shower rail and curtain, lights). Public holiday tomorrow, and again on Thursday. Do the accounts. Start Stuart's book.
I find long passages in italics intensely irritating. (Shadow of the Wind, Julian and Penelope's love affair, according to Penelope's nurse, Jacinta).
I think it's called Tsilikario; it's not, that's some prehistoric gravesite near Halki and the Potamias, but it's the flavoured version of raki, and tastes very nice. I'm pleasantly and happily a little drunk, and enjoying my book, and about to go to sleep. Waking myself up this afternoon to go back to working on the bathroom was almost impossible. It wasn't that I'd fallen asleep, or, if I had, not for very long, but I just felt so tired. Haven't really slept properly, or long enough, since I got here.
This is something about autonomy, about deciding for myself how I will spend my day, my life. The Rule truly appals, because it says, do what 'I' say (not me, but Benedict, or God, or Laurence, or Andrew - and I don't think that any of those people, and I should have included Belle in that list, have any authority whatsoever, or even, any reality. As in, I pretend merely that they have authority, to relieve myself of the burden of figuring out what to do next.) All that said, I prefer sobriety, and am prepared to use any trick to keep it. Belle mainly, even if she was a bit useless today. And I want to go to On the Rocks and have a whisky, ditto Fragile, just not spend a week getting hammered. But equally, it would be fun to go to either, or both, and remain resolutely sober, and go to sleep on Grotta beach because it's free, and not because I'm too drunk to drive home (wherever that may be on the night).
Or am I just fooling myself, and is this just a huge disappointment to everyone, including me?
"Community, in its most satisfying forms involves the whole person, including the body. It
nurtures us as individuals precisely by directing our attention and our care outward toward
those to whom we are bound. And bound is the right word. In a Community, we are bound by
ties of obligation and responsibility. To be in a community is to have the self spun out into the
world rather than in upon itself.
. . .
Finally, I'll briefly note the work of Albert Borgmann, who reminds us that to be for
community does not mean that we are against technology, per se. Borgmann has been a
champion of communities of celebration centered on focal things and focal practices: in short,
things (not devices) that have a commanding presence, that focus our attention and draw us out
of ourselves. All of that requires a good deal of unpacking. I did a bit of that here. I'll wrap up
this section with a line from Borgmann's Crossing the Postmodern Divide. "There is an
interlacing of communities of celebration," Borgmann writes, "that provides for a community
of communities rather than a society of sects." A good final word for this section, I think.
Re-framings
Simone Weil, The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind:
“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human
soul. It is one of the hardest to define. A human being has roots by virtue of his real,
active and natural participation in the life of a community which preserves in living
shape certain particular treasures of the past and certain particular expectations for the
future.”
An excerpt from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
“You see,” he went on calmly, “measured by your standards here, I'm a failure. I
couldn't buy even one of your cornfields. I've enjoyed a great many things, but I've
got nothing to show for it all.”
“But you show for it yourself, Carl. I'd rather have had your freedom than my land.”
Carl shook his head mournfully. “Freedom so often means that one isn't needed
anywhere. Here you are an individual, you have a background of your own, you
would be missed. But off there in the cities there are thousands of rolling stones like
me. We are all alike; we have no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing. When one
of us dies, they scarcely know where to bury him. Our landlady and the delicatessen
man are our mourners, and we leave nothing behind us but a frock-coat and a fiddle,
or an easel, or a typewriter, or whatever tool we got our living by. All we have ever
managed to do is to pay our rent, the exorbitant rent that one has to pay for a few
square feet of space near the heart of things. We have no house, no place, no people
of our own. We live in the streets, in the parks, in the theaters. We sit in restaurants
and concert halls and look about at the hundreds of our own kind and shudder.”
Alexandra was silent. She sat looking at the silver spot the moon made on the surface
of the pond down in the pasture. He knew that she understood what he meant. At last
she said slowly, “And yet I would rather have Emil grow up like that than like his
two brothers. We pay a high rent, too, though we pay differently. We grow hard and
heavy here. We don't move lightly and easily as you do, and our minds get stiff. If the
world were no wider than my cornfields, if there were not something beside this, I
wouldn't feel that it was much worth while to work. No, I would rather have Emil
like you than like them. I felt that as soon as you came.” Sacasas Conviviality #4
St Ben's rule Ch VII - on saying the Night Office (Matins at midnight, study after! until dawn)
were they all sleep deprived? Must find Ampleforth monk's talk on 12 degrees of humility. Ben's or the translator's version is appalling. 'Rule 12, creep around looking at the ground, looking ashamed of yourself and your sins.' That's the Rule's aspiration for human beings.
Said Bonjour to Jacques after med, and he asked me how I was and was I OK about last night, which was nice. I said I tres bien, and that he was right, I make too much blah blah. He is having a desert day today - off on his own, no food. Giovanni leaves at 5ish, Katherine Jarvis arrives same plane 4.35. Try and get 5 minutes with him to ask/talk about water. Dropped Linda at Vivonne to catch her train to Poitiers and Paris. She's an oblate, and we talked about mentorship. She said two of hers died on her. I didn't make the obvious joke. We had a nice hug goodbye.
Belle's thought for the bank holiday
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
—Edward Everett Hale
Be Sober.
—Belle
H fessed up. Funny how sad that makes me feel, and somehow lonely. Also encouraged, weirdly. I don't want to be where she is today, not least because I'm afraid I'd just give up. (ha ha - see below)
I carefully picked out a reading for midday med from Sacasas above. Andrew asked me to read the daily scripture. Then forgot about it. Pretty sure he wasn't timing the med either, or let it run on, because Delyth turned up late. G not worried about the bridge. Yes, of course, because there never was anything to worry about. And Rouel probably wasn't worried either. The only person who is or was is Andrew.
Jack is having a desert day. Is he paying €18 for the privilege? Why didn't he have one yesterday?
Raised the water issue over lunch. G ignorant and frankly silly. Andrew odd. Forget about it. In the end, it's their problem.
New guests - Arnaud and Pascale, staying in the hunting lodge, from Grenoble, and Katherine Jarvis, from Shrewsbury, until the 18th. Nice supper. Missed meditation (finishing off bathroom). Kept schtumm with Jacques over supper - we were at the end of the table, focusing on stopping our little table wobbling.
I'm cheating and I don't think I care - two shots of Jean Christophe's kirsch. Very nice, very smooth, nice hot hit in the gut. The real test is tomorrow, and the days after that. The bottle's still there. And Naxos looms. Sent H a commiseratory / confessional text. And then went back for a final night cap before I went to sleep.
I've finished the bathroom (carpet, shower rail and curtain, lights). Public holiday tomorrow, and again on Thursday. Do the accounts. Start Stuart's book.
I find long passages in italics intensely irritating. (Shadow of the Wind, Julian and Penelope's love affair, according to Penelope's nurse, Jacinta).
I think it's called Tsilikario; it's not, that's some prehistoric gravesite near Halki and the Potamias, but it's the flavoured version of raki, and tastes very nice. I'm pleasantly and happily a little drunk, and enjoying my book, and about to go to sleep. Waking myself up this afternoon to go back to working on the bathroom was almost impossible. It wasn't that I'd fallen asleep, or, if I had, not for very long, but I just felt so tired. Haven't really slept properly, or long enough, since I got here.
This is something about autonomy, about deciding for myself how I will spend my day, my life. The Rule truly appals, because it says, do what 'I' say (not me, but Benedict, or God, or Laurence, or Andrew - and I don't think that any of those people, and I should have included Belle in that list, have any authority whatsoever, or even, any reality. As in, I pretend merely that they have authority, to relieve myself of the burden of figuring out what to do next.) All that said, I prefer sobriety, and am prepared to use any trick to keep it. Belle mainly, even if she was a bit useless today. And I want to go to On the Rocks and have a whisky, ditto Fragile, just not spend a week getting hammered. But equally, it would be fun to go to either, or both, and remain resolutely sober, and go to sleep on Grotta beach because it's free, and not because I'm too drunk to drive home (wherever that may be on the night).
Or am I just fooling myself, and is this just a huge disappointment to everyone, including me?
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Say anything you like. I do.