Words&Dirt

“The moment you protect your family, your country, a bit of coloured rag called a flag, a belief, an idea, a dogma, the thing that you demand or that you hold, that very protection indicates anger.  So can you look at anger without any explanation or justification, without saying, ‘I must protect my goods’, or ‘I was right to be angry’, or ‘How stupid of me to be angry’?  Can you look at anger as if it were something by itself?  Can you look at it completely objectively, which means neither defending it nor condemning it?  Can you?

Can I look at you if I am antagonistic to you or if I am thinking what a marvellous person you are?  I can see you only when I look at you with a certain care in which neither of these things is involved.  Now, can I look at anger in the same way, which means that I am vulnerable to the problem, I do not resist it, I am watching this extraordinary phenomenon without any reaction to it?”

––Freedom from the Known, by Jiddu Krishnamurti, pg. 52-3

“‘We haven’t seen each other in a while.  Please try to be home?’ she asked.

‘I know, I’ll try.’

He kissed her, and although desperate to leave, he lingered in that kiss for an almost imperceptible moment.  If she didn’t know him better, she might’ve romanticized his kiss.  She might’ve stood there hopeful, thinking it said, I love you, I’ll miss you.  But as she watched him hustle down the street alone, she felt pretty certain he’d just told her, I love you, but please don’t be pissed when I’m not home on Saturday.”

––Still Alice, by Lisa Genova, pg. 5