There’s supposed to be a blizzard here all weekend. I thought this was apropos even though all of you have read it.
Also, this poem reminds me of Pascal talking about the then new cosmology, who points out how humbling and incomprehensible the size of the universe is.
| Desert Places by: Robert Frost |
| Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in snow, But a few weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it–it is theirs. And lonely as it is that loneliness They cannot scare me with their empty spaces |
Here's the quote from Pascal's Pensees that I was thinking of:
" When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity that lies before and after it, when I consider the little space I fill and I see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I rest frightened, and astonished, for there is no reason why I should be here rather than there. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time have been ascribed to me? "
Josh, we're so close but so far away. The snow is falling fast, oh fast outside my window right now, and I'm reminding myself that "One must have a mind of winter." We'll have to catch up in 2010 and discuss our experiences with southern exile and northern adaptation.
No doubt. I have a long weekend in mid-February and have off for Holy Week and Easter Week.
I've placed the Pledge of Allegiance to the Texas Flag outside my dorm room. Several seminarians have already signed, even one from Long Island.
Oh yeah, Louis MacNeice's wonderful poem "Snow" is a real gem as well, though not as nihilistic as the others, if they really are nihilistic, which is debatable.