Sep 19, 2024
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Brilliance
by Mark Doty
Maggie’s taking care of a man who’s dying; he’s attended to everything, said goodbye to his parents,
paid off his credit card. She says Why don’t you just run it up to the limit?
but he wants everything squared away, no balance owed, though he misses the pets
he’s already found a home for — he can’t be around dogs or cats, too much risk. He says,
I can’t have anything. She says, A bowl of goldfish? He says he doesn’t want to start
with anything and then describes the kind he’d maybe like, how their tails would fan
to a gold flaring. They talk about hot jewel tones, gold lacquer, say maybe
they’ll go pick some out though he can’t go much of anywhere and then abruptly he says I can’t love
anything I can’t finish. He says it like he’s had enough of the whole scintillant world,
though what he means is he’ll never be satisfied and therefore has established this discipline,
a kind of severe rehearsal. That’s where they leave it, him looking out the window,
her knitting as she does because she needs to do something. Later he leaves a message:
Yes to the bowl of goldfish. Meaning: let me go, if I have to, in brilliance. In a story I read,
a Zen master who’d perfected his detachment from the things of the world remembered, at the moment of dying,
a deer he used to feed in the park, and wondered who might care for it, and at that instant was reborn
in the stunned flesh of a fawn. So, Maggie’s friend — Is he going out
Into the last loved object Of his attention? Fanning the veined translucence
Of an opulent tail, Undulant in some uncapturable curve Is he bronze chrysanthemums,
Copper leaf, hurried darting, Doubloons, icon-colored fins Troubling the water?
Gods are not very introspective. It has never been a survival trait. The ability to cajole, threaten, and terrify has always worked well enough. When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency toward quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow's-point-of-view is seldom necessary.
Which had led, across the multiverse, to men and women of tremendous brilliance and empathy devoting their entire lives to the service of deities who couldn't beat them at a quiet game of dominoes.
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
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Art by Rennyk
Nat: You're not gonna do this to me. John Henry: Oh come on-- Nat: I'm not qualified for this! John Henry: ...Don't you have a masters in education? Nat: IT WAS A DARE! Nat: I GOT IT ON A DARE! John Henry: Okay, but you still-- Nat: This would be bad enough if they were regular kids, Nat: But they all have laser eyes and cartoonish trauma and we still don't really know what Brian is-- John Henry: Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find someone who all four of them independently trust, and is also qualified to both protect and educate them? Nat: Nat: Nat: My fee is going to be unreal. John Henry: ...I...You're already on the payroll, you have shares-- Nat: You're going to give me more shares. Nat: AND my fee is going to be unreal!
The great Brazilian photographer, environmentalist, and chronicler of life on this planet Sebastião Salgado has died, age 81.
His photos covered the beauty and, often, tragedy of the natural world and human existence.
These photos only hint at the excellence of his work. See them at the link and elsewhere on a large screen.
aav.