Walk this way

21/11/2024

26/09/2024

That’s what we learn from nationalism

22/07/2024

/ Bernard Shaw /
"Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!"
"George Bernard Shaw, known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion and Saint Joan. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years before his first public success, Arms and the Man in 1894."
W
Born: July 26, 1856, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland
Died: November 2, 1950, Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England
Resting place: Shaw's Corner, Ayot St Lawrence
Occupation: Playwright, critic, polemicist, political activist
Citizenship: British (1856–1950), Irish (dual citizenship, 1934–1950)
'Man and Superman'

12/07/2024

/ Helen Keller /
"We, the people, are not free. Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means we choose between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. We elect expensive masters to do our work for us, and then blame them because they work for themselves and for their class."
"Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and hearing after a bout of illness at the age of nineteen months. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan, who taught her language, including reading and writing; Sullivan's first lessons involved spelling words on Keller's hand to show her the names of objects around her. She also learned how to speak and to understand other people's speech using the Tadoma method. After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, she attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree."
W
Born: Helen Adams Keller, June 27, 1880, Tuscumbia, Alabama, U.S.
Died: June 01, 1968, Easton, Connecticut, U.S.
Resting place: Washington National Cathedral
Occupation: Author, political activist, lecturer
Education: Radcliffe College (BA)
Notable works: *The Story of My Life (1903)
Helen Keller (1967). “Helen Keller, her Socialist years: writings and speeches”

04/07/2024

A lovely pre-vacation escape to Andorra

03/07/2024

Road trip part one: Barcelona to Dubrovnik via Zuzemberk

01/06/2024

May 30th, new national holiday or do we wait until July 11?

16/05/2024

always relevant

A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

(Book [ad]: If You Ask Me https://amzn.to/44vciq3)

(Art: Photograph of Roosevelt by Yousuf Karsh)

06/05/2024

My first rose of the season and other reasons I love Berlin in May

06/05/2024

Always good to get back to Poland, home cooked bread and pierogi

04/05/2024

Try to travel, otherwise
you may become racist,
and you may end up believing
that your skin is the only one
to be right,
that your language
is the most romantic
and that you were the first
to be the first.
Travel,
because if you don’t travel then
your thoughts won’t be strengthened,
won’t get filled with ideas.
Your dreams will be born with fragile legs and then you end up believing in tv-shows, and in those who invent enemies
that fit perfectly with your nightmares
to make you live in terror.
Travel,
because travel teaches
to say good morning to everyone
regardless of which sun we come from.
Travel,
because travel teaches
to say goodnight to everyone
regardless of the darkness
that we carry inside
Travel,
because traveling teaches to resist,
not to depend,
to accept others, not just for who they are
but also for what they can never be.
To know what we are capable of,
to feel part of a family
beyond borders,
beyond traditions and culture.
Traveling teaches us to be beyond.
Travel,
otherwise you end up believing
that you are made only for a panorama
and instead inside you
there are wonderful landscapes
still to visit.

- Gio Evan, poet and songwriter.
Translated from Italian

01/05/2024

Carrie Fisher
About Star Wars NBC Today Show December 2015

"Please stop debating about whether or not I've aged well. Unfortunately it hurts all 3 of my feelings.

Youth & beauty are not accomplishments. They're temporary, happy by-products of time and/or DNA.

Don't hold your breath for either.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, someone else might have given a f**k."

22/04/2024