After-Orts #81
Once upon a time, long ago, people walked about barefoot. One day, the queen, walking across a rock field, cut her foot on a sharp stone. Annoyed, she called together her ministers and ordered the Queendom carpeted with leather. One wise minister stepped forward and suggested an easier way. "Rather than covering the entire realm, let’s cover the soles of everyone’s feet." The Queen agreed and that was the origin of shoes.
It seems silly to cover a kingdom with leather to protect our feet. In the same way, some of our strategies for living are attempts to cover over our world. A much more effective way of living is to learn to take care of our point of direct contact with the world.
— Gil Fronsdal, The Issue At Hand, Introduction
the book is available as a free PDF download:
https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/documents/iah/IssueAtHand4thEd.pdf
——————
Art is a public-health concern because it keeps you from killing yourself and others.
— Lynda Barry, in a wild and wonderful interview:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/05/magazine/lynda-barry-interview.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
——————
Robert Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper, was legally blind in one eye…. An errant champagne cork shot Kearns in the eye on his wedding night. While driving his Ford Galaxie through light rain, he had the idea of modeling the windshield-wiping mechanism on the human eye, which blinks every few seconds rather than continuously.
— Rachel Khong, in her novel Goodbye, Vitamin