I am truly flattered that you chose one of the most beautiful scenes in all of Shakespeare, the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, just for me! And thanks a lot for the Emerson quotation in full; I have read it a long while back, and it was very nice to see the full text again. It sets out a uniquely simple and yet enormously meaningful approach to life and what makes it worth living. I am now going to copy it into a little notebook I have for such very special bits of prose and poetry.
You know, Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were both of the Transcendalist school of thought, and they were both acquainted with the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas and Indian philosophy in general. Richard Bach, who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull, was a transcendentalist too, and the book , which you might have read, is deeply influenced by advaitic concepts.
Shyamala
QUOTE=Axiom123]
Originally posted by: sashashyam
Dear Laurie,
What can I say but thanks, and thanks again. I needed that after sitting up to 1 am last night performing the obsequies for the original Arjun Kirloskar.
I liked your Romil to the rescue too, though I really did not get most of it after you abandoned the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. I think I am of too old a vintage for Gen Y jokes! This apart,
Romil looks too much like a greasy hairdresser to have an even halfway romantic image pasted on to him.
Shyamala.
I came across an America Poet by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson a while ago and was infinitely moved by one of his most famous quotes.
"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
At that impressionable moment in my life, this became my personal motto and now I try to live it everyday in some form or fashion. I hope I have succeeded. 😊
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
