give up on logic.

Harold Kushner writes:
When we stop searching for The Great Answer, The Immortal Deed which will give our lives ongoing meaning, and instead concentrate on filling our individual days with moments that gratify us, then we will find the only possible answer to the question, what is life about?  It is not about writing great books, [...]

you become a plant.

Thich Nhat Hanh:
Community and time are the two ingredients of the universal medicine. If you can take that medicine every day for a number of years, then you have a chance. You become a plant, a tree, deeply rooted in soil. Happiness and love become possible. And then you can go back and help your [...]

adventures in doubt.

Victor Frankl:
Questing for a meaning to life…questioning, doubting…is rather a human achievement than a neurotic symptom. No animal will ever raise the question of whether or not its existence has a meaning. But man does – and even more, it’s a privilege, a prerogative of YOU – boldly daring adventure to challenge that there IS a meaning [...]

at rest in the same way.

There is in Buddhism a vow called the Bodhisattva vow. It goes like this:  as long as space endures, and as long as there are any beings to be found, may I continue likewise throughout all my lives to become more and more capable of driving away the sorrows of the world.
To which any sane person would say, holy [...]

art tries.

Most of the time things are cloudy, uncertain, hard to make out. The windshield that we all look through to see meaning and truth is coated with the dirt and dead bugs of a thousand-mile roadtrip. We’ve grown accustomed to this grime-vision. It’s thrilling, and frustrating too. We could be anywhere, really. What looks mundane could be magical after all. Fabulous [...]

art is on my side.

Mark Rothko was surely on our side.

Mark Rothko Underground Fantasy [Subway], c. 1940

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1989

fear. art. god.

I shout this one thing at them as hard as I can shout,”There’s nothing to be afraid of!”

Art can be like that. The simplest faith in some kind of god can be like that.