an old writer and his words

  • ANCESTRY

    Children have an innate senseof their ancestry.I was a child of the cityit’s streets my paths, alwaysunder the watchful eyeof my warden – mother. Dirt was to be avoidedat all possible cost,so I never dug my handsinto the fertile soil of myvillage in the heart of Lithuania,or tasted the readying harvestthat dirt would remember. I…

    Lou Faber

  • Seizei’s Poverty 無門關 十

    Sozan shoutedto no onein particular“You may yet havethe finest wine, butonly when youhave nothing willyou taste iton your tongue. A reflection on Case 10 of the Mumonkan (The Gateless Gate Koans)

    Lou Faber

  • WHERE WISDOM CANNOT REACH 正法眼蔵 語十七

    The wealthy man has an ornate cup, the working man a very simple one. The poor farmer, nurturing the tea plants, has no cup and all, but for each of them the tea is the same. What is it that you taste? A reflection on Case 57 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dhama Eye) For…

    Lou Faber

  • WARRANTED

    We have police for almost everything these days, ports and airports, cities, towns transit authorities and those whose beat is good taste or lack of it. Most enforce laws, some merely regulations, a few making them up as they go. My phone rang this morning, an 800 number, And knowing better, I answered it. It…

    Lou Faber

  • THOSE WHO CAN’T DO (OR TEACH)

    “You know,” she said, “it is the critics, they are the real problem, all holy and self-proclaimed arbiters of taste, deciding what is and is not art, as if God spoke late one night and declared to each one that he or she and only he or she would determine what is art.” I wanted…

    Lou Faber