1. The Revolution

Many warlike cultures teach that their founders were inspired men who were God-In-The-Flesh or were chosen by God to serve as channels of communication between God and humanity. The new culture only teaches each adult how to see the inner light which enables him or her to teach peace. The rest of hard-core culture lore is fairy-tale myth and romance.

2. Sturm und Drang! The Modern Impatience!

A year ago a tense and angry professor came to visit me. He wanted me to tell him what I could give him to make him feel peace in a few minutes. He wanted a quick fix. What I said made him even more angry. I told him it might take ten years to fix his problem. Needless to say, I didn�t make his day.

3. So Record It And Sell It In Cans

Comedy, medication and violent activity are modern tension relievers. Humanity keeps on producing so much smoke and heat which gives very little light. I�m fifty-nine now and my problem of obtaining personal recognition and earned income still hasn�t been solved. Professors say I�m a marginal character. In graduate school I was regarded as a joke. My mind�s just too fricken� lively to fit into Academia.

4. The Good Old Boys

Boys respect the one who is able to beat them. Like chess masters, authors, orators, and musicians all test each other and strive to do better. Concentrating too hard upon his own self-betterment as a pure mathematician, Archimedes ignored the battle of Syracuse and lost his head.

5. Voice Of The Turtle

Spending all their days in a shell, clams and snails have been on Earth four hundred million years or more, without saying a word. And to survive another thousand years as a species, humans will pay more attention to snails and clams, and to the other �dumb� animals.

6. Whole-Earth Quaker

Rocks rarely speak, let alone intimidate. But once rocks become audible, even Presidents tremble.

7. Snap Out Of It

For so many people, thinking is a joke. Only a few ideas ever receive public attention, and when an idea does really register in your mind, it�s because the idea strikes you as funny.

8. The Droll Man�s Secret

A genius remains without companionship because he�s so intent on what no one else pays attention to. His major joy is baffling people and he often wears a poker face.

9. Light Of The World

Each time joy makes contact with you, you see warmly and you feel an inner warmth. It�s funny that you don�t notice this more and pay more attention to your own blessedness.

10. Infantuation With Glossolalia

Everything�s rosy when you�re smitten like a child is when his loving caregiver�s expressing the full impact of a silly nonsense rhyme.

11. Consideratum

A genius does or says funny things almost no one�s knowledgeable enough to consider smart. The idiot does and says funny things almost everyone would consider not smart. This is why it�s so easy even for emeritus professors to consider that the idea of a genius is stupid or insane.

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Articles

Song Cycles and Poems

Seminar Notes

� 1999

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