A Summer Day

In Their Own Words

An Eternity
by Archibald MacLeish

There is no dusk to be,
   There is no dawn that was,
Only there's now, and now,
   And the wind in the grass.

Days I remember of
   Now in my heart, are now;
Days that I dream will bloom
   White peach bough.

Dying shall never be
   Now in the windy grass;
Now under shooken leaves
   Death never was.

Advice

Everything is true, and its opposite is true as well. People give advice. I give advice. Nothing is so much fun to give as advice. People do not always like to give money or food or sex, but they are always willing to give advice. Advice costs nothing and it has the added benefit of allowing the giver to feel much wiser than he or she in fact is. Nothing is more fun than to sit back, stroke one’s chin, and lay it down for others: what life really is; what needs to be done; how it needs to be done. It is axiomatic that few people ever really take their own advice. But of course Advice is the one area in life where it is way more fun to give than to receive. Now the thing that always strikes me about advice is this: Everything is true, and the opposite of everything is true as well. Now how’s that for an axiom: “Everything is true, and the opposite of everything is true as well.”---Gene Schmidt. If you want to be a writer, sit down at the typewriter every day and bang out a prescribed number of words: Discipline is the thing. If you want to be a writer, sit down at the typewriter and above all else do not force yourself to write. Sit…wait…’don’t’ go searching for a subject, your subject will come to you.’ Patience is the thing. Discipline or Patience? Well, I’m sure both of these methods have worked for different people at different times. So once again…Everything is true, and the opposite of everything is true as well. For every three people who get there faster by taking a short cut up Green Street, you will surely find another three people who have gotten their faster by taking a short cut up Bagel Street. Cut out carbs from your diet. No, don’t cut out carbs, cut out fat. Don’t cut out anything, just count those calories. Haste makes waste. He who hesitates is lost. So the question becomes, ‘is anything true at all?’. Well, in the realm of advice, it is all true: “Everything is true, and the opposite of everything is true as well.” Of course, the opposite of Everything is Nothing. “Everything is true. Nothing is true.” At least nothing on this mundane level. The search for Eternal and Transcendent Truth continues apace, without doubt the most important of all human endeavors.

"Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise to balance it."---George Santayana