Week in Seven Words #389

alliance
Washington and Lafayette clasp hands, their differences in age and height smoothed over by the sculptor and by the shadows of the overhanging branches.

feelers
Throughout the conversation, she keeps pointing out how she and her husband agree on everything. "He and I never discussed this issue before, and look, we think the same!" She infuses her voice with hope. Her husband says nothing, keeps eating.

impish
Each grotesque appears to have its own story and store of sly remarks. Each gives the impression that he's only pretending to be a sculpture; as soon as you leave, he'll scamper around on the window ledges. Some look drunk. Others are spies and thieves who will sneak inside when they're sure the building is empty.

incongruous
He's come up to hike alongside me when I notice the quote on his t-shirt: "I would prefer not to." From Bartleby the Scrivener. I ask, but with a smile he prefers not to tell me why he chose this shirt on a day of vigorous movement.

patter
As I talk, I watch my words slide off them. I'm a gentle rain shower passing through their evening.

profusion
By the side of the church, the pink and white flowers look like the lining for a baby's crib. Before a brownstone, buttery flowers melt open in the sun. Others spring, pink and broad, from a ceramic planter. Leaves cascade from an open window - a houseplant bent on escape.

resort
By day, the bird bath is for the birds, usually no more than two at a time, each shivering and luxuriating in the water. At night when the birds are gone, a cockroach perches on the edge of the bowl, its antennae fanning.

Words from MLK

Fail better

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett

A site that lays out the spectacular failures of successful people.

And for reasons unclear to me, I think this piece fits - there's something wistful and regretful about it, but at the same time it's clear and beautiful, and becomes light-hearted sometimes.


The Finale of Haydn's Sonata No. 53 in E minor.

From the cicada's point of view

“Four years of hard work in the darkness, and a month of delight in the sun - such is the Cicada’s life. We must not blame him for the noisy triumph of his song. For four years he has dug the earth with his feet, and then suddenly he is dressed in exquisite raiment, provided with wings that rival the bird’s, and bathed in heat and light. What cymbals can be loud enough to celebrate his happiness, so hardly earned, and so very, very short?” -Jean Henri Fabre

In the above passage Fabre finds poetry in entomology, writes about life's magnificence and mystery existing in creatures that we usually don't squint hard enough to see or dig deep enough to find.

And now, some words from the Bennet sisters

Jane

"I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think."


Elizabeth

"I do assure you, Sir, that I have no pretension whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man. I would rather be paid the compliment of being believed sincere. I thank you again and again for the honour you have done me in your proposals, but to accept them is absolutely impossible. My feelings in every respect forbid it. Can I speak plainer? Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart."


Mary

"Far be it from me, my dear sister, to depreciate such pleasures! They would doubtless be congenial with the generality of female minds. But I confess they would have no charms for me - I should infinitely prefer a book."


Kitty

"I do not cough for my own amusement."


Lydia

"Have you seen any pleasant men? Have you had any flirting?"

"...only one of you in all of time..."

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

-- Martha Graham
(Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham; though I found the quote in Rosamund and Benjamin Zander's book, The Art of Possibility)

Mozart urges love

The following quote is attributed to Mozart:

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

What do you think, about love being the soul of genius?

What's this love that Mozart refers to - a love of what one does, a passion for it, a commitment to it that defies other considerations?

A love of life as well, and one's place in this world? A love of self and others, or perhaps a love of self at the expense of others (considering that geniuses are not always known for their kind and unselfish natures).

What do you do in life, that you love? And why do you love it?

(The words "love, love, love" also brought to mind the lyrics of "All You Need Is Love" and the thought that maybe The Beatles were inspired by this quote... or maybe not... I've had that song stuck in my head lately, courtesy of a Beatles-loving friend who sang it twice through while drunk.)

It's not that love is all you need... only that without it, your talents and gifts won't attain their fullest breadth, that there'll be something hollow and lacking in your endeavors. And you could also feel all the love there is to feel and not be a genius - but then, at least you'll have that love, that sense of joy and richness and possibility, and you'll take pleasure in whatever you can do with your life and your abilities; that's a kind of genius in and of itself.

UPDATE:

A video of Gabrielle Chou, from the Youtube Channel "KidMusician"; she's playing the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 8:



and here, a piece she composed as an homage to Chopin, played with feeling and skill:



As Mozart well knew, this kind of love can appear at a young age too.