Friday, the 8th of August
I don’t know where these two notes came from. When did I come across Herman Melville’s note to Nathaniel Hawthorne? Decades ago, that’s for sure, when I fell in love with the snap and candor in this snip of personal correspondence, written long hand. A couple years back I paired them with a saying by John Forbes Nash. How did they land in the same Word file? Two 19th century broad range writers and a genius mathematician now in his late 80’s. I must have thought they would recognize each other. For a Friday at the end of a work week both texts suggest that to-do lists take on deeper meaning because of affection. The work we do satisfies when we get something done competently. Sometimes, though, the beauty in the work brings us to a halt and we can hear ourselves breathing.
I hope your weekend filled with beauty and wit, and mine too.
john sj
Today’s Post
I stand for the heart.
To the dogs with the head!
I had rather be a fool with a heart
Than Jupiter Olympus with his head.
The reason the mass of men fear God and at bottom dislike Him,
is because they rather distrust His heart
and fancy Him all brain
like a watch.
Melville to Hawthorne 1851
“Though I had success in my research both when I was mad and when I was not,
eventually I felt that my work would be better respected
if I thought and acted like a ‘normal’ person..”
– John Forbes Nash
p.s. a meadow in Rocky Mountain National Park
