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Showing posts from November, 2021

Field of Dreams

  Field of Dreams We know it well. Picture this field as a vast plane, stretching to infinity. In it is contained all your hopes, ideas, wishes, aspirations, yearnings, and desires. Even faith has a presence. Many visit often. Some live there. Only a few have forgotten where it is. This field is special, part fantasy, part spiritual, part a plan, and part the solution. It is the place where dreams meet reality. Each of us sees this field stretching before our present and future. For each, there are hopes, even prayers for those dreams to come true.   Your field of dreams is a fertile plain, lush with flowers and grasses, but also with spines and thorns. because not everything growing there is what you want.   To be avoided are those most tempting, the dreams of excess. We should thus call this short essay Your Field of Dreams Parents often say, “Sweet dreams” to their children on tucking them in. Before that, you dreamt of having children, healthy and able, good and happy. Befo

The paradox of Dostoevsky vs Edison

Some of us live by maxims of the famous luminaries, past and present. Yet, it is upon us to understand just what is correct, actionable, and sensible. Let’s consider the lie from the inside and out. For us grown-ups Let’s begin with the maxim from Fyodor Dostoevsky , “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” This lofty admonition sounds almost Utopian, with dire consequences for violation. The self-lie is wrong.   For the kids. We have “The Little Engine that Could,” a story used to teach children the value of optimism and hard work. This means to try hard regardless of doubt, also to be viewed as a possible self-lie. Dostoevsky instructs us not to, but most of us do try. Does this mean we lie to ourselves?   Yet, from another past luminary Thoma