“Power is actualised only when word and deed have not parted company.” Hannah Arendt
The Hollow Fruit I fertilised my mind and pruned my soul with eager waiting as the fruit of life began to ripen with anticipation, and soon I placed the melon, all glossy and firm, on my table for sacrifice, and I took my knife and sliced it open, only to find that it was devoid of seed and lacking in good fruit, a false promise and a sterile facade of all that I'd hoped, perhaps imagined, that would be mine, and I felt empty inside. ©Paul Vincent Cannon
Reading the entrails of a melon was a divinatory art practiced only by remote tribes of the Amazon… 😉
Arendt now? You never cease to surprise me my friend. 👍🏻
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I believe that those Incas had nice melons to divine 😉 Arendt should be mandatory reading in my view 🙂
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LOL.
Arendt? With Popper and Camus, she’s probably one the 5 top thinkers of the 20th century.
I’ve been planning to re-read her work any time soon.
(I’d love to see your library!)
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🙂 I had a few thousand, but now I’m shedding books to those who can use them, I’ve read so many … we have had access to the best thinkers in our time. Arendt is wonderful, and writes as readable, not like some.
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Arendt really is one of my favourites, along with Levi-Strauss and Russel.
I have about 3,000. But the number is now fixed with the available space in the library. I regularly make boxes and donate to the Frecnh Lycée. Who are delighted. (Suspended for Covid of course, but I pile them in a coffer.) Cheers.
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Yes, my process too, but I do love my kindle, less space and dust 🙂
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I understand, though I’ve never really made the jump. No Kindle, just an Ipad which I use to read the Frog news, and one or the other short document I don’t have in print. I stick with the dust and fragrance of paper and leather (for very old books)
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If you were inclined 😉 you can download the Kindle app for the ipad or notebook 🙂
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I actually do have Kindle on the Ipad. For one or 2 E-books I bought. Just prefer my paper books. 😉
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Ah, I see, I would have said the same, but I’ve become a convert. 🙂
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It’s fine. I know many people who are converts. Maybe one day.
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I’m worse than a recovering (insert substance, activity) ….. evangelistic 😉
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Apropos
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Which tells me you got that 🙂
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😊
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You are supposed to thump the rind of a melon to tell if it is good.
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Indeed, but the two legged one got through, probably should have thumped him harder 🙂
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Deep and insightful 💞👌👌
All the efforts (fertilised my mind, pruned my soul) and then hollow result (mellon) – I can truly relate with this, not at a very mature level, when I score lower than the average after studying hard till late night.
PS, maybe I should have been more regular
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I would share that view, I have had a similar road and feeling 🙂
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There’s a lot this could apply to besides fruit I feel like. Love it!
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Yes, very much so, broad application, thank you for loving this 🙂
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Sad
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It sure is.
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This is scary but profound.
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The fruit of the existential crisis. Who of us, having survived to a certain age, have not felt this.
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Yes, the lies we told ourselves I guess, wanting to believe in causes, philosophies, but … yes indeed VJ.
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All those empty promises… you weave the tale within so well, Paul.
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Thank you for that Chris, high praise indeed.
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This is a heartbreaking metaphor for so much of life.
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Yes, the lies that unravel, especially the one’s we tell ourselves. And most especially the mad thought of progressive transformation (enter the politicians and business leaders).
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I felt your sadness in this poem – very emotive
>
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Yes, the lies we swallowed.
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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Many thanks Chuck 🙂
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