We are
in the habit of saying
that it was not in our power
to choose the parents who were
allotted to us, that they were given
to us by chance. But we can choose whose
children we would like to be. There are households
of the noblest intellects: choose the one into which you wish
to be adopted, and you will inherit not only their name
but their property too. Nor will this property
need to be guarded meanly or grudgingly:
the more it is shared out,
the greater it will
become.
The general
who advances without
coveting fame, who retreats without
being ashamed, whose concern is to keep the
people safe and honor the sovereign —
she will be the treasure
of the nation.
from The Art of War, Chapter X
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Be quiet
in your mind,
quiet in your senses,
and also quiet in your body.
Then, when all these are quiet,
don’t do anything. In that
state truth will reveal
itself to you.
What lies
outside my mind
is of no concern to it.
If you could learn this lesson,
you’d be standing straight.
You can come back
to life.
Anything could happen,
and whether we act or not has everything
to do with it. Though there is no lottery ticket for the lazy
and the detached, for the engaged there is a tremendous gamble
for the highest stakes right now. I say this to you not because I haven’t
noticed that this country has strayed close to destroying itself and everything
it once stood for, in pursuit of empire in the world and the eradication of democracy
at home, that our civilization is close to destroying the very nature on which we
depend—the oceans, the atmosphere, the uncounted species of plant and
insect and bird. I say it because I have noticed: wars will break out,
the planet will heat up, species will die out, but how many,
how hot, and what survives depends on whether
we act. The future is dark, with a
darkness as much of
the womb as the
grave.
Rebecca Solnit