Value for Friday of Week 51 in the season of Friday

Anxiety

Real

True Narratives

Daniel Smith, Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety (Simon & Schuster, 2012): "an attempt to grapple with a lifetime of anxiety: to locate its causes, describe its effects and possible identify a cure."

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Poetry

W.H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (1947): a book-length poem on post World-War II culture in the United States.

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Ben Shahn, Age of Anxiety (1953)
Nicholas Roerich, Anxiety (1938)
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Anxiety (1926)

Film and Stage

Value for Friday of Week 51 in the season of Harvest and Celebration

Being Serene

Serenity is a sustained state of inner peace.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. [attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr]
Serenity comes when you trade expectations for acceptance. [attribution unknown]

“Serenity has been defined as a spiritual state that decreases stress and promotes optimal health . . . a sustained state of inner peace . . . and a universal health experience related to quality of life . . .” It refers to the kind of tranquility experienced when one has attained a pervasive inner peace, and is positively associated with mental health.

Real

True Narratives

Book narratives:

Natasha Trethewey, Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (Ecco, 2020): “How do you not vomit up all the anguish when artfully vomiting up all the anguish is one way of getting free?”

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Poetry

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,— / The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: / Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms / 'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.

All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, / Are golden kingcup fields with silver edge / Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. / 'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly / Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:— / So this wing'd hour is dropt to us from above.

Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, / This close-companioned inarticulate hour / When twofold silence was the song of love.

[Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Silent Noon”]

Peace flows into me
As the tide to the pool by the shore;
It is mine forevermore,
It ebbs not back like the sea.

I am the pool of blue
That worships the vivid sky;
My hopes were heaven-high,
They are all fulfilled in you.

I am the pool of gold
When sunset burns and dies, —
You are my deepening skies,
Give me your stars to hold.

[Sara Teasdale, “Peace”]

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Louis Stewart was a jazz guitarist with a serene style of playing. Here is a link to his releases.

Sun-Mi Hong is a jazz drummer who creates a “perceptibly tranquil, dreamily meditative soundscape . . .” Here is a link to her albums and singles.

Musical offerings:

John Rutter, Requiem (1985) (approx. 36’) (list of recorded performances): “It is intimate rather than grand, contemplative and lyric rather than dramatic, consolatory rather than grim, approachable rather than exclusive. I suppose that some will find the sense of comfort and consolation in it facile, but it was what I meant at the time I wrote it, in the shadow of a bereavement of my own.” Performances are conducted by Brown, Cleobury and Rutter.
John Luther Adams, In the White Silence (1998) (75’): “White is not the absence of color. It is the fullness of light. Silence is not the absence of sound. It is the presence of stillness.” “Like many of Adams's previous works (this work) is an example of his concept of 'sonic geography,' through which he attempts to realize the notion of music as place and place as music and reveals his obsession with the 'treeless, windswept expanses of the Arctic.”
Steven Halpern, “Ocean of Bliss” album (2020) (80’) and “Ocean of Bliss, Vol. 2” album (2022) (68’)
Steven Halpern, “Lake Suite” (2004) (78’)
Steven Halpern, “Inner Peace” album (2002) (60’)
Steven Halpern, “Serenity Suite” album (1999) (60’)
Liquid Mind, “Relax” album (2003) (64’)
Ludovico Einaudi, “Waves” albums, vol. 1 (2003) (383’); vol. 2 (384’)
Brian Eno, “New Space Music” album (1993) (61’)
Pēteris Vasks, Musica Serena (2015) (approx. 10’)
Seckou Keita, “22 Strings/Cordes” album (2015) (50’)
Bobo Stenson Trio, “Serenity” (2000) (90’) album
David Starobin, “Giulio Regondi: A 200th Birthday Bouquet” (2023) (57’): “Though his music has come to light only in recent decades, Giulio Regondi was unquestionably the greatest of the 19th century composer-guitarists, the author of works that combine technical brilliance, warmth of spirit and rich melodic invention.”

(from nature itself) Echoes of Nature:

Waterfall
Ocean Waves: Pleasant Beach
Rainforest
Wilderness River: Big River, Streamside Songbirds, and Crickets and Water

Other nature sound tracks:

From the shadow side: Contemporary chamber music is characteristically unsettled, usually reflecting anxiety and worry. Here are several examples:

Krzysztof Penderecki, chamber music, performed by the Tippett Quartet, Tale Quartet, Silesian String Quartet, and Quatuor Molinari

From the dark side:

Dmitri Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 3 in F Major, Op. 73 (1946) (approx. 28-31’) (list of recorded performances): "Presented as a 'war quartet’, Shostakovich initially supported the idea of a program by giving subtitles to each of the movements: ‘Calm unawareness of the future cataclysm’; ‘Rumblings of unrest and anticipation’; ‘The forces of war are unleashed’; ‘Homage to the dead’; and ‘The eternal question: why and to what purpose?’. These descriptions, barely adequate to describe the moods of each movement, were withdrawn by Shostakovich almost immediately: he gave no explanation.”
Historically, Brazil is a difficult place. Cláudio Santoro, who lived there during the 20th century, composed fourteen symphonies, most of them unsettled and restless. Whether they reflect turmoil in Brazil during that time, or turmoil within himself, they illustrate an opposite of serenity, in music – especially the latest ones. They include: Symphony No. 5 (1955) (approx. 34’); Symphony No. 9 (1982) (approx. 25’); Symphony No. 11 (approx. 17’); Symphony No. 12 (approx. 26’).

Music: songs and other short pieces

Nawang Khechog, “Quiet Mind”
Alexander Scriabin (composer), Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 11, No. 15 (“Raindrop Prelude”)

From the dark side:

Gabriel Kahane, Die Traumdeutung (Dream Interpretation) (lyrics) (anxiety)

Visual Arts

Henri Matisse, Luxury, Serenity and Pleasure (1904)
Isaac Levitan, Above the Eternal Tranquility (1894)
Ivan Aivazovsky, Seashore (1843)

Film and Stage

A baby first begins to learn about the world by experiencing it. A room may be warm or cool. The baby learns that distinction. As a toddler, the child may strike her head with a rag doll, and see that it is soft; then strike her head with a wooden block, and see that it is hard. Love is a distinction: she loves me, or she doesn’t love me. This is true of every human value:

justice, humility, wisdom, courage . . . every single one of them.

This site is dedicated to exploring those distinctions. It is based on a model of values that you can read about on the “About” page. However, the best way to learn about what is in here is the same as the baby’s way of learning about the world: open the pages, and see what happens.

When you open tiostest.wpengine.com, you will see a human value identified at the top of the page. The value changes daily. These values are designed to follow the seasons of the year.

You will also see an overview of the value, or subject for the day, and then two columns of materials.

The left-side column presents true narratives, which include biographies, memoirs, histories, documentary films and the like; and also technical and analytical writings.

The right-side columns presents the work of the human imagination: fictional novels and stories, music, visual art, poetry and fictional film.

Each entry is presented to help identify the value. Open some of the links and experience our human story, again. It belongs to us all, and each of us is a part of it.

The Work on the Meditations

BEING EMPATHETIC

Empathy begins the process of connecting us with others, as we share their emotions. Our own life experience enables us to understand something of the life experience of others. That emotional understanding is the distinction we call empathy: “. . . the capacity to share the feelings of others . . .” “Empathy is a complex capability enabling individuals to…
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Wish Fulfillment

Believing things to be true because one wishes them to be true is a prime malady of the human condition. It is an opposite of objectivity, reflecting a shortfall of intellectual honesty. It has led to wars, famines and other guarantors of human suffering.

Hopelessness

Hopelessness is a dark view of the future, in which there is no escape from unhappiness and suffering.

Living in Dignity

Properly understood, dignity refers to a high state of ethical/moral attainment and behavior. If human worth is the intrinsic life experience, then what is human dignity? In this model, it is the global term for being excellently developed in all three domains of being in a way that enhances human worth. Its elements are caring (emotion), wisdom (thought) and courage…
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Anxiety

Cycles – Seasons

Life is cyclical. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity . . . [The Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1.] Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something’s time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor…
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Mutuality – Reciprocity – Cooperation

Low-level interpersonal relationships are essentially transactional. Mere reciprocity, or cooperation, does not imply any good feeling toward others. People who do not otherwise get along can cooperate to achieve a common end or purpose. Early experiments in game theory, particularly in the prisoner’s dilemma, revealed that repeated interactions between members of a community, of as few as two people, were…
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Being Incisive

Being sharp, keen, and penetrating is the essence of being incisive. Most people think they do not have time to consider issues carefully. They are sloppy thinkers. We value the cultivation of incisiveness, which is the art of considering details. Details matter. In Constitutional law, for example, seemingly innocuous breaches of individual rights can lead to the destruction of the…
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Grid into the Creative Forces

GLOBAL SELF-WORTH DIGNITY CREATIVE FORCES THOUGHT SELF-CONFIDENCE REASON/WISDOM TRUTH EMOTION SELF-ESTEEM CARING/EMPATHY LOVE ACTION SELF-COMPETENCE COURAGE/SERVICE/GENEROSITY FAITH

This is Our Story

Humanity United in Action,
Driven By Love and Compassion,
Informed by Science and Reason.

This Is Our Story

A religion of values and Ethics, driven by love and compassion, informed by science and reason.

A RELIGION OF VALUES

WHAT YOU WILL SEE HERE

BEING EMPATHETIC

Wish Fulfillment

Hopelessness

Living in Dignity

Anxiety

Cycles – Seasons

Mutuality – Reciprocity – Cooperation

Being Incisive

Grid into the Creative Forces

Value for Friday of Week 51 in the season of Friday

Real

True Narratives

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

Value for Friday of Week 51 in the season of Harvest and Celebration

Real

True Narratives

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

This Is Our Story

A religion of values and Ethics, driven by love and compassion, informed by science and reason.

A RELIGION OF VALUES

WHAT YOU WILL SEE HERE

latest from

The Work on the Meditations

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