“From everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living, nothing in my eyes is better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad.” – Ivo Andric, novelist, Nobel laureate (9 Oct 1892-1975)
Eudaimonia
by Michael Doyle
As a matter of virtue and philosophical inquiry
Aristotle unveiled many a treasured mystery
Setting eudaimonia as the telos of human life
Translated toward peace and against strife
Investigations into the dream of pure reason
Turning the colors of each passing season
The functionality of thought in this lyceum
Belongs on the streets, not in the museum
There in the walking lectures that are felt
Is the veracity of all that can be dealt
Amidst the four causes behind human flourishing
Is found the eudaimonia that is quite nourishing
Happiness found in the right conditions met
Is the best path forward and with the least regret
Human beings can be quite unsettling and complicated
But a life well lived is lived by being dedicated
Most of life is temporary and without deep meaning
This is the gist being the human busily being
Where each day is passed without more than a greeting
In those things that pass and are quietly fleeting
Measured in its moments and in the passing of years
Happiness is found in a life well lived despite tears
It is not the momentary joy and not strictly pleasure
But in living well will be the life that is its treasure
It's the means to the ends and the end in itself
Measured in reasons that you won't find strictly on a shelf
But anchored in the ethical aims of the conscience
Somewhere there between spirituality and truest science
Self-contained, not to be found in any honor shown
But in an active life that is the act of life grown
There are the secrets of a life lived to live well
Where the rough and ready of politics depends on detail
This student stands ready to find all he might learn
And in all of this, there might be wisdom to discern
It is there that there is truth that passes for knowledge
Somewhere out beyond the safety of the window's ledge
Is the truest grace in the processes of deep life
Somewhere, somehow that brings peace from all this strife
All of the dreams dreamt and that we might conceive
It all comes down to the will of what it takes to believe
(c) October 8, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“We may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!! Not transient and fitful effort, but patient, enduring, honest, unremitting, and indefatigable work, into which the whole heart is put.” – Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
“Where there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.” – Benjamin Rush (1788)
Shadowboxing
by Michael Doyle
Shadowboxing with my ego
Hiding from whispers of an echo
When cleansing of sin is needed
And common sense is not heeded
There are dangers in complexity
Raw feelings rough in their simplicity
I just need to hold on to the sunrise
Visions that bleed before my tired eyes
Mistakes made in my living hell
The pain inside is where my demons dwell
I never meant to hurt your beautiful soul
Caught in past trauma, I sometimes lose control
Without the benefits of my id
There are parts of me that I cannot keep hid
Lying in a pool of blood, not of my making
The innocence of childhood lost in the taking
I try so hard to always keep in trust
Because I know that I really, truly must
Holding on loosely to let love continue to grow
The wound in your eyes tells me my demons won't let go
Caught in an inferno's furnace blast
I am swept deep into my jaded past
In this world fill with angst's uncertainty
It is these wounded parts that are killing me
(c) October 7, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.” –Niels Bohr, physicist, Nobel laureate (7 Oct 1885-1962)
“[T]he most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.” – Thomas Jefferson (1816)
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain (1835-1910)
“There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight.” – Vaclav Havel, writer, Czech Republic president (5 Oct 1936-2011)
“The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.” – George Washington (1789)
Văn Học Ngoại Biên — Literature Beyond
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