The Truth of Man

"I, on the contrary, chose justice in order to remain faithful to the world.  I continue to believe that this world has no ultimate meaning.  But I know that something in it has a meaning and that is man, because he is the only creature to insist on having one.  This world has at least the truth of man, and our task is to provide its justifications against fate itself. "    

Albert Camus
"Letters to a German Friend: Fourth Letter" 
Resistance, Rebellion, and Death 
1943

Wisconsin-Iowa

Lust

"The virtue of Hope, in Enoch, was made up of two parts suspicion and one part lust."

-Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood

Iowa

Carl Sagan

Women's Weapons

Oh, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is cheap as beast's.  Thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm.  But, for true need--
You heavens, give me that patience; patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age, wretched in both.
If it be you that stirs these daughters' hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let no women's weapons, water drops,
Stain my man's cheeks.  No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both
That all the world shall -- I will do such things--
What they are yet I know not, but they shall be
The terrors of the earth.  You think I'll weep.
No, I'll not weep.
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws
O ere I'll weep.  Oh, Fool, I shall go mad!

-King Lear by William Shakespeare
Act 2, Scene 4, Lines 262-284

Wisconsin

*Bonus Post*

The Bluebird

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that

Madison, WI

he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there
so don't be
sad.

then I put him back
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

-Charles Bukowski