A Great Voice for the Earth and for Belonging to Land has passed out of our direct experience but his voice, his art, his words will last forever as long as he is remembered. We must not forget what he taught us to see and feel.
American Masters Film about M. Scott Momaday’s life and works. This film is a work of art as well. He’s not like anyone you know but you feel like you recognize people in him. His words are powerful in that they are skinny on description but its all there in the way the words are put together. A spirit of land is what I belive he embodies in flesh, voice, and his writing.
Formative Boyhood Experiences of Momaday
Words from a Bear
I recommend this beautiful little book, a masterwork of all M. Scott Momaday knew and shared condensed into these short but powerful recollections of the Earth: Earth Keeper. Published in 2020. 65 pages. You can carry it in your pocket as you travel this incredible Earth.
What can modern American citizens and our political leaders learn from Hume? How were the views of our founding fathers shaped by the great philosophers of their time? How do they influence modern understanding of our Republic today? See this link to Federalist Paper 10 which considers the power of a government system to stem the tidal pull of dangerous fractions.
Jeffrey Rosen leads the discussion with three scholars of Hume. Original sources are suggested and links embedded in the chat during the discussion and provided on the wesite link above.
These same ideas are not only alive and well in our current political deliberations but also illuminate what has gone wrong and why. We can all use a dose of Hume and Madison to understand the forces that can threaten or aid the pursuit of happiness, meaning the common good.
Highly recommended to readers on this blog. Please forward to friends, neighbos and teachers and leaders in your communities. It is a non partisan discussion for all political persuasions to consider and for understanding the original thoughts and ideals that influenced the founding of America.
Janet Yellen, Sec. of the Treasury, at the Economic Club of Chicago…
Please share this critical address on the state of America’s economy as a way to encourage Americans overall and to stem the tide of disinformation from the MAGA Republicans.
The Biden Administration is led by an exceptional Cabinet of experts who carry out the work of the People on a daily basis, many without much public media coverage. However, one exception is Anthony J. Blinken, Secretary of State who is receiving widespread coverage with the Ukraine war and the Israeli-Hamas conflict and other rumblings around the Middle East. No President and administration knows when conflicts like Ukraine and Israeli will happen during their administration. These two conflicts are now consuming Biden and Blinken’s attention, travel and diplomatic talks. Both Ukraine and Israel were attacked without provocation by Russia and Hamas respectively. Each of these conflicts has sent shock waves throughout the world and we are now witnessing new alliances form and old ones consolidate. Some say the U.S. diplomatic position (leading) is waning, others that it is essential to peaceful resolution.
Each time I listen to Anthony Blinken describe America’s diplomatic goals around the world, as well as the thinking behind policies, I realize how critical it is to elect a President with experience, one who will bring the best minds to the challenge to democracies from authoritarian movements rising around the world.
Mr. Blinken executes his office of Secretary of State with wisdom, humanity, and a clear vision of America’s role in the world. In this interview below, Secretary Blinken is interviewed by Tom Friedman at Davos on January 17.
American culture is a busy, somewhat fraught place as individuals and groups strive to influence the direction of markets and ideas. More and more these activities take place on digital platforms that are globally accessed and influenced by everyone from elementary school children to foreign governments and posers (human and artificial). Evermore diverse and without much internal control except that which participants choose to shape, democraciesdepend on the individual’s commitment to discerning the truth.
John Adams reminded citizens that “facts are stubborn things,” meaning that truth cannot be corrupted. Yet in today’s digital environment, truth is battered, shaped, recolored and redressed until it represents its opposite. An example is the kidnapping of democratic language used to support MAGA athoritarianism. Citizens duped and caught up in the web of lies are aiding authoritarian forces that seek to destroy the liberal order established after WWII and the system of governance established at our founding.
This article from Pew Research reports on the growing number of Americans who favor technology companies or the U.S. government restricting false or violent information. What do you think? What are the risks? Gains? What are the challenges the average citizen faces in attempting to discern the truth in today’s marketplace of ideas and influencers?
Until today I did not understand that it was the ideas of the Enlightenment that inspired Ludwig von Beethoven to write the now best loved “Ode to Joy” in the final movement of his second symphony -Symphony No. 9.
I can thank an amazing intellectual, Maria Popova. who writes a weekly treasure of curated ideas and art on a subject in her newsletter, The Marginalian.
That year, he began — though he did not yet know it, as we never do — the long gestation of what would become not only his greatest creative and spiritual triumph, not only a turning point in the history of music that revolutionized the symphony and planted the seed of the pop song, but an eternal masterwork of the supreme human art: making meaning out of chaos, beauty out of sorrow.
The masterwork’s libretto contains a message to the world that seems perfect to revisit in another time when chaos threatens to overcome humanity:
Oh friends, no more of these sounds! Let us sing more cheerful songs, More full of joy! Joy, bright spark of divinity, Daughter of Elysium, Fire-inspired we tread Thy sanctuary! Thy magic power reunites All that custom has divided; All men become brothers Under the sway of thy gentle wings. Whoever has created An abiding friendship, Or has won A true and loving wife, All who can call at least one soul theirs, Join in our song of praise! But any who cannot must creep tearfully Away from our circle. All creatures drink of joy At nature’s breast. Just and unjust Alike taste of her gift; She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine, A tried friend to the end. Even the worm can feel contentment, And the cherub stands before God! Gladly, like the heavenly bodies Which He set on their courses through the splendor of the firmament; Thus, brothers, you should run your race, As a hero going to conquest. You millions, I embrace you. This kiss is for all the world! Brothers, above the starry canopy There must dwell a loving Father. Do you fall in worship, you millions? World, do you know your Creator? Seek Him in the heavens! Above the stars must He dwell.
Now read the Libretto translated by Tracy K. Smith and performed in 2020 at a Carnegie Hall performance, All Together: A Global Ode to Joy.
O friend, my heart has tired Of such darkness. Now it vies for joy. Joy, bright God-spark born of Ever Daughter of fresh paradise— Where you walked once now walk rancor, Greed, suspicion, anger, fright. Joy, the breeze off all that’s holy, Pure with terror, wild as flame. Make us brothers, give us comfort, Bid us past such fear and hate. If you’ve loved another’s beauty If you’ve craved the warmth of flesh, If your spirit is invested In another’s sense of worth, Lift your voice to touch my voice now, Let our song bring joy to earth. Lift your voice to touch my voice now, Let our song bring joy to earth. Joy like water, milk of mothers. Kind and wicked all deserve Joy’s compassion freely given, Joy which can’t be sold or earned. In the depths of blackest soil In the lightless atmosphere In the atom and the ether, Animating all that is. Let us feel it, let us heed it, Let us seek its deepest kiss. Let us live our brief lives mining That which joy alone can give. Battered planet, home of billions, Our long shadow stalks your face. All we’ve fractured, all we’ve stolen, All we’ve sought blind to your grace. Earth, forgive us, claim us, let us Live in humble thanks and joy. Let our hearts wake from our stupor, Let us praise you in one voice.
Ode to Joy Adaptation by Tracy K. Smith (b. 1972) for the culminating concert of All Together: A Global Ode to Joy at Carnegie Hall on December 6, 2020
Here is a superb performance of the Symphony No. 9 by the Chicago Symphony.
For the last movement, Ode to Joy, start at about 59:00
Susan Feathers 