Robert L. Peters

7 November 2018

There is a crack in everything…

leonardcohen

Montreal, Canada

It’s two years ago today since poet/troubadour Leonard Cohen moved on into the next dimension. I came across this insightful tribute by Maria Popova online (with thanks to Brenda Sanderson for the link)…

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There Is a Crack in Everything, That’s How the Light Gets In: Leonard Cohen on Democracy and Its Redemptions

A generous reminder that we must aim for “a revelation in the heart rather than a confrontation or a call-to-arms or a defense.”

Trained as a poet and ordained as a Buddhist monk, Leonard Cohen (September 21, 1934–November 7, 2016) is our patron saint of sorrow and redemption. He wrote songs partway between philosophy and prayer — songs radiating the kind of prayerfulness which Simone Weil celebrated as “the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

One of his most beloved lyric lines, from the song “Anthem” — a song that took Cohen a decade to write — remains what is perhaps the most meaningful message for our troubled and troubling times: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” It springs from a central concern of Cohen’s life and work, one which he revisited in various guises across various songs — including in “Suzanne,” where he writes “look among the garbage and the flowers / there are heroes in the seaweed,” and in the iconic “Hallelujah”: “There’s a blaze of light / In every word / It doesn’t matter which you heard / The holy or the broken Hallelujah”.

Read the whole post on Brain Pickings


14 February 2018

Portugal… a perfect winter ‘getaway.’

Evelin and I have just returned from a wonderful (laid-back, serendipitous) and highly enjoyable three weeks in Portugal, touring around with abandon (with my brother Jim and his wife Bonny). This was my third visit to this great little country, and we were blessed to meet up with a number of designer colleagues and educators as we toured.

A fuel-efficient, diesel-engined Opel Astra carried the four of us and our modest baggage comfortably, allowing travel to wherever we wanted whenever we wanted. Airbnb accommodations worked out great, and were very affordable — we only booked “5-star” rated places, often just the night before… Baleal (3 nights), Arcozelo (2 nights, close to Porto and Braga), Tomar (2 nights), Melides (2 nights), Aljezur (2 nights), Vila do Bispo (1 night), Porches (4 nights, with an Algarve beach practically to ourselves), Lisbon (1 night), and Cascais (3 nights, close to Lisbon and Sintra).

Due to my food alergies I did the cooking daily, and Jim took on the facility-booking and driving responsibility (he’s an excellent driver). We truly enjoyed each others’ company, the fine people and hospitality we encountered, the spectacular scenery, the seafood, and of course the wine… 

Below is a small sampling of the many photos I took. More can be viewed in a Facebook gallery, here.

Flag_Portugal

Arcozelo

Porto_station

Obidos_Evelin

Obidos_trio

Brother_Jim_sea-stacks

Tomar

Wine_therapy

Sagres_Portugal

Sagres_Sagres

Mediterranean_Evelin

Sintra_castle

Sintra

Sintra_Evelin

Lisboa

 


19 November 2017

Nothing thicker than a knife’s blade separates happiness from melancholy.

Woolf

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)


22 April 2016

Howling, howling at the (full) moon…

howling_moon

Waxing, waning, howling…


3 March 2016

Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd…

— Rumi

(Thanks to cousin Annette Marie McNeill McGinley for the quotable).


8 February 2016

Happy New Year… 2016 / Year of the Monkey

year_of_the_monkey


4 February 2016

Hmmmm…

avocado

(original source unknown)


15 June 2015

Reading can seriously damage your ignorance.

(You’ve been warned).


27 August 2014

Not all who wander are lost… (and why should they be?).

—JRR Tolkien, ‘All that is gold does not glitter’, (The Lord of the Rings)


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