Could positive thinking and the law of attraction be inspired by religion? We have all heard the saying, “Faith can move mountains.” That is a paraphrase from the Bible. The words are spoken by Jesus Himself. Here is the story from the Book of Matthew.
Friday, May 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
A man’s reach should exceed his grasp: Browning
Andrea del Sarto
Poor Andrea del Sarto. A successful Italian painter who was overshadowed by his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. We admire the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael while Andrea del Sarto is almost forgotten. Yet that is what makes him more like most of us.
We may not be remembered outside our own circle of family and friends, but that does not take the edge off the desire and zeal with which you pursue your dreams and aspirations. We may not always get what we want, and we may want more if we do, but that is life. A constant yearning.Continue Reading
Sunday, May 5, 2013 By
Adlestrop, Edward Thomas and Sweet Tooth
I had to look up this poem after reading about it in Ian McEwan’s novel, Sweet Tooth. Adlestrop, a poem by Edward Thomas, comes up in a moment of intimacy between the heroine, Serena Frome, and her lover, Tom Haley, a writer.Continue Reading
Saturday, May 4, 2013 By
Sweet Tooth: A love story
Ian McEwan, author of Atonement and Amsterdam, which won the Booker prize in 1998, knows how to begin a story. Sweet Tooth has your attention from the get-go:
Thursday, May 2, 2013 By
Lionel Asbo: What the dickens, Martin Amis!
Martin Amis is a brilliant writer and he really lets it rip in his novel, Lionel Asbo. The colourful characters could be descended straight from Charles Dickens. Amis writes about the modern English chav with the same gusto as Dickens wrote about Victorian low life.Continue Reading
Monday, April 29, 2013 By
From Falstaff to Elvis Presley
This is why I love the World Wide Web. It took me from Falstaff to Elvis Presley.Continue Reading
Monday, April 29, 2013 By
1963: Annus Mirabilis, Beatles!
I saw a video of a concert given by the Beatles in 1963 which made me think, oh my God, 50 years have gone by since then, some of the young fans singing along with their idols at the concert may no longer even be around any more, but gone like John and George.Continue Reading
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 By
Shakespeare: Prospero’s revels and As You Like It
April 23 is believed to be the birthday of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and this is also the day he died. So it’s time to recall some of my favourite lines from Shakespeare, recited by the actor John Gielgud, and then keep my date with my Shakespearean heroine, Rosalind, in a wonderful, playful love scene from As You Like It.
But first Sir John Gielgud, in the role of Prospero in The Tempest.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
(Act IV, Scene 1, The Tempest)
And now over to As You Like It.
Thursday, April 18, 2013 By
Joseph Anton: Rushdie on Rushdie
I remember watching on CNN the World Trade Center collapse on September 11, 2001.
I could not believe my eyes as the two planes commandeered by al-Qaeda terrorists hit the twin towers, bringing them down in tongues of fire, clouds of smoke.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed and retribution followed with the Americans going after al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the war on terror, security stepped up everywhere. Commentators began to talk of a post-9/11 world.
But actually the change began more than a decade ago when Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in February 1989, calling for the death of Salman Rushdie for blaspheming the Prophet in The Satanic Verses.
