February 4
ANGER
When man becomes a prey to anger he loses all refinement. He turns into a lunatic for the time being.
Spoilt ambrosia becomes poison. A sound mind is ambrosia. But when it is tainted with anger it turns into poison. An angry mind vomits vile thoughts. It transmutes the whole system into venom. The food consumed while in anger becomes injurious to health. An angry man’s judgement is clouded.
Obstructed desire turns into anger. It is the worst enemy of man.
--- Vedanta.
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ROCHEFOUCAULD
RÉFLEXIONS OU SENTENCES ET MAXIMES MORALES
29
Le mal que nous faisons ne nous attire pas tant de persécution et de haine que nos bonnes qualités.
30
Nous avons plus de force que de volonté; et c'est souvent pour nous excuser à nous-mêmes que nous nous imaginons que les choses sont impossibles.
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29.—The evil that we do does not attract to us so much persecution and hatred as our good qualities.
30.—We have more strength than will; and it is often merely for an excuse we say things are impossible.
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Essay
My date with Dustin Hoffman
ダスティン・ホフマンとデート
It’s 1963 and my best friend, Michele, is throwing my divorce party at her 68th Street penthouse in New York. Michele knows many celebrities from The Ed Sullivan Show, where her ex-husband was the music coordinator. I ask if she’ll be inviting any big stars.
She shrugs. “No, I invited our acting class. And that cute Greek guy we met last New Year’s Eve at that party.”
Aristedes was his name. He called himself Stedes. Gorgeous Stedes. My stomach does a somersault.
The party is boisterous with actors talking shop. When Stedes shows up, Michele lures him to the kitchen to help with drinks.
I notice a dark-haired, short fellow staring at me from across the room. He’s not my type so I ignore him and continue following the Greek around. I’m losing the battle, however, as Michele sticks to him like a Band-Aid.
Around 1 a.m., the party thins out and I see the dark-haired stranger again. He’s about 5 feet 7 inches tall. His large nose and dark eyes remind me of the young Hassidic Jews in the jewelry district. He beckons me over and I reluctantly approach.
“Is it okay if I play the piano?” His voice is nasal but not the New York accent I expected. Intelligent eyes dance with a bit of amusement.
“It’s not my house. But – I glance at Michele with Stedes – why not?” The baby grand hasn’t been used since Michele’s ex moved to California.
“I’m Bev. You?”
“I’m Dusty Hoffman.”
“An actor?”
“Yep.”
“Who do you study with?”
He tries to suppress a smile. “Well, currently, Lee Strasberg.”
My mouth falls open. The Lee Strasberg, of Actor’s Studio!? This little guy with the big nose is in the most prestigious acting school in the world?
“My ex-husband and I auditioned for it. Neither of us got in,” I told him.
“Do you want to get out of here?”
We slip out unnoticed.
On my sofa on Jane Street, we continue talking.
“What are your goals?” I ask.
“Oh, I’m going to be a star,” he says, and grins. “I’ve been doing this for ten years already, so I’ve paid my dues.”
Confidence is a powerful aphrodisiac. But he was also smart, sensitive, funny and sweet. He morphs into handsome.
He leans in to kiss me and says, “I thought I’d never get you away from that Greek.”
“What Greek?” I whisper.
In the days that follow, Dusty invites me to do auditions with him. He’s incredible. The directors love him. I need more lessons.
Dusty disappears just before the news breaks that Dustin Hoffman is starring in the off-Broadway show Eh? Soon he moves to Hollywood to do The Graduate.
The Greek has disappeared too.
Michele and I never mention either of them again. (Beverly A. Jackson)
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Dueteronomy 029
Chapter 29
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***** Renewal of the Covenant *****
1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.
(wax = become)
6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.
7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:
8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.
9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.
10 Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:
12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:
13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;
17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
( make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.)
( wormwood ヨモギ)
19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:
22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;
23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
(brimstone = sulfer, hellfire)
24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
28 And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
