Philosophical thought

UNCLE LUDWIG HAS A SERIOUS SIDE

Someone once said :

"If I could live my life all over again, if I could only undo the things that need undoing, if I could love as I should have and if I could have known all that is worth knowing I would not be here telling you of things that weigh on my soul...I would have long ago ceased to reach for myself"

(Uncle Ludwig said that)


I thought I'd share with you some of the wisdom and beauty of Kahlil Gibran, the Persian poet and philosopher.

From his masterpiece;

THE PROPHET

SPEAK TO US OF LOVE

"Love gives naught but itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
for love is sufficient unto love"

"WHEN YOU LOVE YOU SHOULD NOT SAY, "GOD IS IN MY HEART," BUT RATHER, "I AM IN THE HEART OF GOD"

"LOVE HAS NO OTHER DESIRE BUT TO FULFIL ITSELF."


And what of Marriage

"Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music"

Speak to us of children

"Your children are not your children,
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you"

"You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of to-morrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams"

"You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you"

About work

"Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream,assigned to you when that dream was born"

"Work is Love made visible"

"For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger"

DEATH

"For what is to die but to stand naked in the wind and melt into the sun?
And what is to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

The prophet was first published in 1923. "It is a heartfelt _expression of a man's deepest spiritual desires...its potent message of self understanding and spiritual growth has proved itself to be universally inspiring" The book is available at any bookstore or library, it is published by Senate Press.

Buy it, borrow it, read it!

UNCLE LUDWIG BIDS YOU ADIEU Have a wonderful holiday weekend and remember that "Work is Love made visible"

Comments: Write Uncle Ludwig c/o The Platonic and Aristotelian Society at the following e-mail address: cnouel@sbcglobal.net