The Miracle of the Sun
I was reading about UFOs on wikipedia and realized that people often interpret supernatural phenomenon as either proof of alien life or proof of a miracle. Take “The Miracle of the Sun,” an event that occurred on October 13, 1917, in the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima, Portugal.

From wikipedia:

According to many witness statements, after a downfall of rain, the clouds broke and the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disk in the sky. It was said to be significantly less bright than normal, and cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the shadows on the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The sun was reported to have careened towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, frightening some of those present who thought it meant the end of the world. Witnesses reported that the ground and their previously wet clothes became completely dry.

So was it a vision of the Virgin Mary or a UFO? The scientists say it was neither, but yet have little in the way of explanation of their own.

I’m willing to believe that some things are beyond my understanding. I guess there are more things in heaven and earth than are encompassed by our philosophies.

Losing It
I like this song.

Anxiety Story
I had a tough time with anxiety when I was in college. The pressure of finding a career when I knew nothing about the world outside of the rarefied air of academia terrified me. I also felt a lot of pressure from my parents, who “just wanted the best for me.” My anxiety manifested itself through a low-grade rage and outbursts of anger.

Lots of people feel anxiety and many have different ways of showing it. I really liked this story in The New Yorker Magazine about a woman living in New York City and how she deals with her anxiety. I’m not sure what the take-away was from the story, but I thought it was well written. What do you think it means?

Shōtetsen
The fourteenth-century Zen monk Shōtetsen fascinates me. His house burnt down and consumed the first 30 years of his poetry. An angry shogun confiscated his property around the same time, effectively killing his income. Then his poetic competitors excluded him from an official compendium of poetry commissioned at the time.

Yet he worked through the pain and produced wonderful poetry. I haven’t found a wealth of his works online, so I’ll transpose one from Stephen D. Carter’s wonderful translation.

“Passing Like a Dream”

From a poem sequence sponsored by the Ogasawara Bizen Lay-monk Jōgan at Myōeiji on the 29th day [of the Fifth Month of 1457].

Whatever
one sees
in the midst
of one’s sleep
ends
with waking;
but the dreams
one has while awake
sleeping
won’t make you forget.

Nuru ga uchi ni / miru wa samuru o / kagiri nite / samete no yume ni / nete mo wasurenu

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