Thought for the Day

You journey with your ancestors. That's why knowing

your roots is important, because whether you know it

or not, they're journeying with you. Wouldn't you want

the help? Wouldn't you want the warnings? Wouldn't you

want the blessings of those who have gone before you?

~ Dr. Barbara Holmes

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Quoted from Barbara Holmes, "Living in a Crowded Cosmos," CAC's Living School: Essentials of Engaged Contemplation, Center for Action and Contemplation, August 2024; Requoted in Barbara Otero-Lopez, "Healing the Wounds of Exile," Daily Meditations, May 7, 2025 (See The Living School.)

 

Barbara Holmes (1943-2024), Ph.D., Theologian, Spiritual Leader and Contemplative, Visionary, Activist, Scholar and Educator, Professor, Writer, Lawyer, Professional Actor

 

Dr. Barbara Holmes Obituary

 

Barbara C. Otero-Lopez, Director of Programs, Center for Action and Contemplation (See "Loving in a Time of Exile" in ONEING 13, No. 1, 2025. ONEING is the CAC's biannual journal.)

Center for Action and Contemplation

 

CAC Remembrance of Dr. Barbara Holmes

Thought for the Day

You use the past. You do not worship it – you consult

it. And one of the obligations to the poetry . . . you are obliged

 not just to keep it alive, but to change it and contribute to it

 and adapt it and keep it alive by making it new.

~ Robert Pinsky

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Quoted from John O'Rourke, "Robert Pinsky, America's Ambassador for Poetry, Retiring from Teaching After 36 Years at BU, More Than 1,000 Students" in BU Today, April 29, 2025 (Online)

 

Robert Pinsky, Poet, Translator, Nonfiction Writer; U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to Library of Congress, 1997-2000; William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor and Director, Creative Writing Program, Boston University (Retired, 2025); Jazz Vocalist of Poetry

Favorite Poem Project, BU Center for the Humanities

Thought for the Day

A freedom which is occupied in denying freedom is itself so
outrageous that the outrageousness of the violence which one
practices against it is almost cancelled out: hatred, indignation,
and anger [. . .] wipe out all scruples. But the oppressor would not
be so strong if he did not have accomplices among

the oppressed themselves; [. . .]
~ Simone de Beauvoir

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Quoted from Simone de Beauvoir, Section 3, "The Antinomies of Action" in Chapter III, "The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity" in The Ethics of Ambiguity, 1947 (Online Text at  Marxists Internet Archive)

 

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), French Writer, Feminist Activist, Philosopher (Existentialist), Social Theorist

 

On The Ethics of Ambiguity 

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Thought for the Day

Seek and learn to recognize who and what,

in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno,

then make them endure, give them space. 

~ Italo Calvino's Marco Polo

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Quoted from Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, Illustrated 50th Anniversary Edition (Mariner Books Classics, 2025) 

 

Calvino's Invisible Cities (Le citta invisibili) was published in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore. Harcourt published an English translation in 1974. Mariner Books Classics published a paperback version in 1978.

 

Italo Calvino (1923-1985), Cuban-born Italian Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, and Short Story Writer 

Marco Polo (c. 1254-1324), Venetian Merchant, Explorer, Writer

 

Anthony Doerr, "The Timeless Magic of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities at 50" in LitHub, March 20, 2025

 

Carrie McBride, "Where to Start With Italo Calvino," New York Public Library, October 11, 2023