#iv

I was the ref. I was the ref they didn’t know about. Deaf and dumb. Invisible as a wall. I wanted no one to win ↗

— Roddy Doyle

#divorce-separation-children #age

All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive. ↗

— Yann Martel

#madness #survival #life

She left her keys in the teeth of the lock where they would dangle all day. ↗

— Karen Thompson Walker

#age

If you’re an Orthodox believer, then what sustains this framework is the obligation that you follow. But if you live in a democratic, liberal world whose motto is: “Make choices and manage your choices according to what is good for you,” then there is a built-in tension between that which connects and that which divides. Between the material and the intellectual or ethical. Materialism is not a dirty word, but in this tension between the individual and the material on the one hand, and the communal and the ethical on the other, we are at the end of an age in which the material and the individual are triumphing. ↗

— Kalid Gilad

#ethics-and-moral-philosophy #judaism #materialism #otherness #progressives

Privacy is a privilege not granted to the aged or the young. ↗

— Margaret Laurence

#age

At our present bad moment, we need above all to recover our sense of literary individuality and of poetic autonomy. ↗

— Harold Bloom

#individuality #age

Then he asked my age and I asked his. That's the tradition in China. If we know each other's ages we can understand each other's past. We Chinese have been collective for so long, personal histories are not worth mentioning. Therefore as soon as Xiaolin and I knew how old the other was, we knew exactly what big shit had happened in our lives. The introduction of the One Child Policy shortly before out births, for instance and the fact that, in 1985, two pandas were sent to the USA as a national gift and we had to sing a tearful panda song at school. 1989 was the Tiananmen Square student demonstration. Anyway, Xiaolin was one year younger than me, so I assumed we were from the same generation. ↗

— Xiaolu Guo

#culture #lived-history #mores #temporality #age

The Bronze and Iron Age peoples saw water as having supernatural powers whilst its dark mysterious depths were seen as the gateway to the underworld. People felt compelled to make offerings to the Deities, which they believed inhabited these magical places, as evidenced by many archaeological finds including jewellery, plaques, coins and both animal and human remains. No doubt these were the original ‘wishing wells’ that we throw our small change into today, in the hope that the spirit of the place will grant our heart’s desire! ↗

— Carole Carlton

#carole-carlton #imbolc #irish-celts #lughnasadh #moon-magic

He's half my ex-husband's age, but twice as energetic when we have sex. And twice as grateful afterwards. ↗

— Barbara Taylor Bradford

#older-women #age

I used to be friends with Miles Davis. He didn't like many folks. I lived across the street from him. ↗

— Rip Torn

#davis #folks #friends #him #i