of disparate elements, netting them in an image that startles and satisfies.” For example: “There was a tanager singing like a drop of blood in the tall thin pines.” Gordon is intrigued by Merton’s “hyphens” in their “whirling, sensual overfullness.” His signature is not only I write, therefore, I am, but also I love, therefore, I write. When I read Gordon on Merton, I have the feeling that she is drawn to his personal, intimate voice for the same reason I am. He tells us what it’s like to be a human being alive now. This is simply the voice of a self-questioning human person who, like all his brothers,
struggles to cope with turbulent, mysterious, demanding, exciting, frustrating, confused existence in which almost nothing is really predictable, in which most definitions, explanations, and justifications become incredible even before they are uttered, in which people suffer together and are sometimes utterly beautiful… Merton never forgets the utterly beautiful within turbulent, mysterious and demanding existence. J.S. Porter, co-author with Susan McCaslin of Superabundantly Alive: Thomas Merton’s Dance with the Feminine, reads and writes in Hamilton, Ontario with his wife Cheryl and his dog Sophia. www.spiritbookword.net ♣
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Tales from Fruitvale…
Thoughts on Perfection… Paul Bowles, Fruitvale BC
Nothing is more inspirational than a perfect artistic performance, yet we are not all professionals whose skill and experience have honed their art to the highest level; but even so, the notion of perfection is relative to our age and stages of accomplishment in every field of endeavour. Our endeavours require the ENERGY to ASPIRE... for us to play a part in the world agenda. Many roles may be played in the agenda of our life. Perfection is a term which describes the pinnacle of our standards of human judgement. We judge everything in life: our circumstances, our gardens, our work, our body’s health, a night’s sleep. We judge music, dancing, writing, architecture, science, education and in a democracy, our freedom to speak and enjoy the privilege of life to come and go without oppression. We judge the planet we live on, its condition, which, like our lives and endeavours, is always changing. Sun brings joy but drought brings misery, then rain is perfect. Spring brings blossoms, which may be perfect for a while, yet in time they fade. Fruit may be perfect but then the crop may not be abundant. Perfection is subjective, individual. A new mother may see perfection in the smile of her child. Perfection is the ENERGY of LIFE, dispersed throughout the universe in the growth of stars and planets, flora and fauna and in human development, which may www.dialogue.ca
ultimately be to have love for all of life and the wisdom to know what is good and fair as we struggle for harmony against natural and psychological impedances. Perhaps perfection is a sliding scale somewhat dependent on our temporal perspective. Also, time may have a way of changing our evaluation of what seemed perfect or imperfect in our past. Perfection may be a fleeting thing, like inspiration, for we are not always inspired but if we are, it would be perfection to be able to express it. We could aspire to it. The ENERGY to ASPIRE may be called PERFECTION itself, for without it we cannot achieve our goal. We all have goals, ASPIRATION is the driver. At the level of basic communication, just as in the movie The King’s Speech, where King George V1 drives himself to overcome his stammering speech while addressing the nation over radio in the late 1930’s, his aspiration was to be able to speak with confidence, openly and without fear in public. IN CONCLUSION, we can’t say with certainty that our speech, should we ever have to make one, or performance of any kind, in coffee house or at a festival, interview, examination, or magazine production, we don’t know that it will turn out perfectly, but aspiring to that.... is sufficient and when we step up to the podium or out into the world, whether it shall be a perfect or imperfect rendering... is subject to evaluation. Paul Bowles , scribepoet@hotmail.com ♣ SEE ALSO PAUL’S CALLIGRAPHY ON P. 60 VOL. 32, NO. 4, SUMMER 2019
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