Month: March 2015
Beauty Vérité
“Beauty Vérité” | Anthony Satori
“She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful for the way she thought. She was beautiful for that sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Lighthearted Riddle
Lester hesitated, remembering the old adage that the sequel seldom lives up to the original.
Icarus
“Icarus” | Anthony Satori
Whoever said that man was not meant to fly must have never been to a skate park.
To see someone get this kind of air on the sheer force of momentum, wheels and skill is exhilarating. It brings to mind the oft-quoted words of airman and poet John Magee, “I broke the surly bonds of earth, and touched the face of God.”
John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was an American test pilot who tested fighter planes for the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. His poem High Flight (1941) was inspired by test flights in the U.K. where his task was to fly high-performance planes straight up into the air, as fast and as high as he could, until the engine failed. He would then recover control of the plane on the way down, restart the engine, and land. Reaching higher into the sky than probably anyone before them, the pilots who performed these tests certainly had a unique perspective on the heavens. In fact, the final line of the poem came to Magee just as he was reaching peak altitude of 30,000 feet in a Spitfire Mk1. Upon safely landing the plane, he returned to his desk and finished writing the poem. Sadly, only a few months later, during a similar flight test there was a mid-air collision, and, unable to eject because of a mechanical error with the plane’s canopy, Magee died in the crash. He died doing what he loved, however, and he served the Allies bravely. He also left us with some immortal lines of poetry.
Interestingly, there is a lesser-known line that Magee also wrote, but which is almost always left out when people quote the poem. Even though the words as quoted are impactful, the omitted line has always provided an important dimension to the poem’s meaning, for me, so I have decided to include it here for you. With the additional middle line, Magee’s poem reads, “I broke the surly bonds of earth, reached out my hand, and touched the face of God.” [my emphasis] It seems to me that the reaching out of the hand is a vital part of the act. We can fly high, yes, but unless we reach out our hand, perhaps we can never hope to touch the face of God. We should aspire, most definitely, but then we must also take action, take risk, reach out our hand. It seems to me that there is a very important message contained in this line, namely: the Universe responds to the reach.
So even if we are not leaping through the air on a skateboard, or climbing 30,000 feet in a fighter plane, we can each find inspiration to reach for new heights in our own lives. And as we do, we should keep this in mind: It is not the nature of the task, but the quality of the striving, that is of the essence.
Gentle Beginnings
“Gentle Beginnings” | Anthony Satori
So here we are, approaching the Vernal Equinox, the beginning of Spring. It is a time for renewal, for re-simplification, for immersing our senses in the vibrancy of life all around us. It is a time to fall in love, again, with the simple pleasures of being alive: warm air, sunshine, the sky and the sea… music, friends, food and conversation. It is a time to begin sowing fresh seeds of hope, cultivating nascent sparks of interest and desire, and cherishing the gentle beginnings of robust flowers.
Beauty Is
“Beauty Is” | Anthony Satori
“Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.” – Khalil Gibran
Elephant Soul
“Elephant Soul” | (Animal Spirits, pg. 118) | Anthony Satori
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius
From the moment we realize this concept, how could we not expend as much energy and attention as possible toward engaging our minds with thoughts of beauty, nobility, compassion and peace?
Prana (Inner Light)
“Prana (Inner Light)” | Anthony Satori
Ancient writings from the Indus Valley tell us that the universe within us is as vast as the universe outside of us.
“As great as the infinite space beyond, is the space within the lotus of the heart. Both heaven and earth are contained in that inner space, both fire and air, sun and moon, lightning and stars. Whether we know it in this world or know it not, everything is contained in that inner space.” (Chandogya Upanishad, 1.3)
I have always been fascinated by ancient texts, especially ones which strive to tell us something about the spiritual world. Such writings have always felt to me a bit like “messages in a bottle,” sent by people who lived millennia in the past, ancient seekers who discovered certain truths about life that they believed to be of such profound importance that they were willing to employ every means at their disposal to preserve them for later generations to discover.
In some of these texts, the Sanskrit term “Prana” is used to indicate Vital Energy, or Inner Light, referring to the spiritual energy field that vibrates within, around and through us. Prana is our own personal breath of the Divine, our own individual connection to the Source of Life. One of the realizations that these ancient seekers wished to share with us is that every human being holds the ability to connect with the Universal Spirit through meditation, introspection and study. What an insight! It is both empowering and humbling to realize that we each have the potential to explore the vastness of the Universe merely by quieting our thoughts, centering our minds, and remaining still long enough to discover it within ourselves.
Now or Never
Stan knew it was now or never.
Satori Circle | Art & Culture 