#neglect

Father had stretched out his long legs and was tilting back in his chair. Mother sat with her knees crossed, in blue slacks, smoking a Chesterfield. The dessert dishes were still on the table. My sisters were nowhere in evidence. It was a warm evening; the big dining-room windows gave onto blooming rhododendrons. Mother regarded me warmly. She gave me to understand that she was glad I had found what I had been looking for, but that she and father were happy to sit with their coffee, and would not be coming down. She did not say, but I understood at once, that they had their pursuits (coffee?) and I had mine. She did not say, but I began to understand then, that you do what you do out of your private passion for the thing itself. I had essentially been handed my own life. In subsequent years my parents would praise my drawings and poems, and supply me with books, art supplies, and sports equipment, and listen to my troubles and enthusiasms, and supervise my hours, and discuss and inform, but they would not get involved with my detective work, nor hear about my reading, nor inquire about my homework or term papers or exams, nor visit the salamanders I caught, nor listen to me play the piano, nor attend my field hockey games, nor fuss over my insect collection with me, or my poetry collection or stamp collection or rock collection. My days and nights were my own to plan and fill. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#benign-neglect #childhood #curiosity #imagination #parenting

The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time he knows he must not neglect it. ↗

— Lord Chesterfield

#difference #dress #himself #his #knows

I've overcome neglect and deprivation, abandonment and abuse. ↗

— Tatum O'Neal

#abuse #deprivation #i #neglect #overcome

I think records and music are more appropriate and more respectful of the human soul than the churches are. And more respectful of the needs of humans to communicate with the aspects of themselves that are neglected by language. ↗

— Will Oldham

#aspects #churches #communicate #human #human soul

Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future. ↗

— Sophocles

#dead #future #lost #neglects #past

I noticed a lot of guitar players neglected the rhythm part of rhythm guitar and decided I would try to focus in that. ↗

— Hal Sparks

#focus #guitar #guitar players #i #lot

I noticed a lot of guitar players neglected the rhythm part of rhythm guitar and decided I would try to focus in that. As my skill and knowledge of the instrument grew, I found lead started to come naturally. Sometimes I play guitar like a frustrated drummer. Ha ha! ↗

— Hal Sparks

#decided #drummer #focus #found #frustrated

How would it be possible if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labor be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare. ↗

— Baruch Spinoza

#almost #could #difficult #excellent #found

Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond who you were. ↗

— Jonathan Anthony Burkett

#anger #aspiration #control #forgiveness #grow

God's Word teaches a very hard, disturbing truth. Those who neglect the poor and the oppressed are really not God's people at all—no matter how frequently they practice their religious rituals nor how orthodox are their creeds and confessions. ↗

— Ronald J. Sider

#confession #creeds #god-s-word #neglect #oppression