Thursday, September 18, 2014

My Love Of What I Own May Be Killing Somebody Somewhere

"Therefore, if I don't pretend, like other people, to understand the war, I do know this much: that the knowledge of what is going on only makes it seem desperately important to be voluntarily poor, to get rid of all possessions this instant. I am scared, sometimes, to own anything, even a name, let alone coin, or share in the oil, the munitions, the airplane factories. I am scared to take a proprietary interest in anything, for fear that my love of what I own may be killing somebody somewhere."
--Thomas Merton, from a diary entry during WWII reflecting upon the connections between possessions and complicity in violence worldwide

3 comments:

  1. Ah, what a fabulous quote you offer us today, Beth!
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this challenging Merton quotation Beth.

    ReplyDelete
  3. * 3things

    ________________________

    Three things
    that makes
    flowers bloom -

    Sun
    rain
    and shit *


    Three things
    that cause
    Self to flower

    Sun
    rain
    and shit *


    Until
    love is abandoned
    there is no freedom *

    ____________________________



    Posted by bob knab

    ReplyDelete