(1) Message From God: Be Patient (WSJ)
(2) How Google & Co. Will Rule Your Rep (WSJ)
“‘Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.’ Honest old Abraham Lincoln knew what he was talking about. Just imagine his reputation score. But today, even his shadow would look longer.”
(3) A Dramatic Enlightenment (WSJ)
“Even at the awkward angle from which we view the picture, we read it from left to right, as we do the sequence of the three paintings, but we also read from right to left, from the source of illumination above to its objects below. The drama entails a move between darkness and light, flesh and spirit, an old life and a new one.”
(4) Modern Architecture, Being the Kahn Lectures by Frank Lloyd Wright
“Shadows were the ‘brushwork’ of the ancient architect. Let the ‘modern’ now work with light, light diffused, light reflected, light refracted–light for its own sake, shadows gratuitous. It is the machine that makes modern these rare new opportunities in glass; new experience that architects so recent as the great Italian forebears, plucked even of their shrouds, frowning upon our ‘renaissance,’ would have considered magical. They would have thrown down their tools with the despair of the true artist. Then they would have transformed their cabinets into a realm, their halls into bewildering vistas and avenues of light–their modest units into unlimited wealth of color patterns and delicate forms, rivaling the frostwork upon the windowpanes, perhaps. They were creative enough to have found a world of illusion and brilliance, with jewels themselves only modest contributions to the splendor of their effects.”
(5) Quote from St. Thérèse of Lisieux
“When I want to rest my heart, wearied by the darkness which surrounds it, by the memory of the luminous country to which I aspire, my torment redoubles; it seems to me that the darkness, borrowing the voice of sinners, says mockingly to me, ‘You are dreaming about the light, about a country fragrant with the sweetest perfumes; you are dreaming about the eternal possession of the Creator of all these things; you believe that one day you will walk out of this fog which surrounds you…'”
(6) The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
“It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.”
Photo by ©JBOT 2.0 2012