Sunday, February 04, 2007
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REFLECTIONS
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An Armenian bears two crosses, and the heavier of the two is not his own.
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If talk is cheap and if “he who speaks does not know,” when, O when shall I acquire the wisdom of silence?
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My critical remarks may damage our prestige in the eyes of the world, I am reminded once in a while. To which I can only say, what prestige? Most people are not even aware of our existence or, if they are, they tend to confuse us with Romanians and Arameans. To the rest we might as well be an open book and a political cliché. If they flatter us it may be because we can be of some use to them. Which means their opinions of us is so low that they think they can manipulate us with phony sentiments. I don’t call that prestige, I call that an insult.
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When does hatred of the enemy end and self-hatred begin? Muslims in the Middle East today hate one another more than they hate the West, and judging by the venom in our discussions forums, letters to the editor, and our recent history, how different are we?
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Honorat de Bueil: “Nature is jealous of our prosperity. She allots a longer lifespan to thorns than to roses.”
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Monday, February 05, 2007
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GUESSING GOD
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If God exists, He wants us to go about our business as though He didn’t. Gone are the days of the Old Testament when He micromanaged human affairs. No more Burning Bushes, Ave-Maria archangels, and prophets. His message to mankind seems to be: If you don’t make use of the brain I have given you, don’t bother me with your problems.
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What if our ancestors were smarter than we are? Mention if you can a modern figure comparable to Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, and Jesus. What if the writers of the Old Testament were smart enough to know they were writing science fiction? What if a thousand years from now mankind will study the Old Testament the way we study books on Greek mythology today?
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When speaking of God, it is wiser to ask questions than to answer them. Or, like Buddha, treat Him as though He did not exist.
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“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.” Buddha may be said to have been the only major religious leader who took this commandment so literally that Buddhism is the only major belief systems that is atheist.
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Tuesday, February 06, 2007
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CANADIAN ENCOUNTERS
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The first time I said something remotely critical about an unimportant aspect of Canadian life, an elegantly dressed and attractive lady said: “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you go back where you came from?”
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When I asked her if she had a favorite painter, a local artist replied: “Eengrass.” It took me a while to realize she had meant Ingres.
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When after a long interval I met an old friend in the street and asked about his mother, whom I had met on several occasions, he replied: “We don’t know where she is. She ran away with a younger man and we haven’t heard from her since.”
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A CANADIAN IN ITALY
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“How do you say pizza in Italian?”
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PATRIOTS
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Our partisans don’t like my kind of writing. They think I insult Armenishness. And what’s even more absurd, they consider themselves competent judges, even though they have more skeletons in their closet than breathing specimens with brains in their living room. Only utter despair can lead a man to believe in his own lies.
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I’VE BEEN READING
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Barby d’Aurevilly: “The crimes of the most advanced civilizations are greater than those committed by the most backward barbarians.”
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Blaise Cendrars: “It is in the very things that they share that people differ the most from one another.”
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Sartre: “Half victim, half accomplice, like the rest of mankind.”
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Paul Valéry: “To believe that one understands is a very dangerous state of mind.”
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Balzac: “All power is a permanent conspiracy.”
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Wednesday, February 07, 2007
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
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Mention an unsolved mystery and someone is sure to spin a conspiracy theory.
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Ask an unanswerable question and someone is sure to come up with the wrong answer.
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People who hate fiction don’t see any contradiction in the fiction that is at the base of their belief system.
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When it comes to understanding, man seems to operate on the verge of starvation: any answer, no matter how untenable and absurd, is better than none.
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A priest once slapped me because I asked the wrong question. I no longer remember the question, but I remember the slap, which was no answer.
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MEN AND WOMEN
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To women, men are the most universal sources of disappointment. Did you know that the Chinese word for husband is “go