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Showing 1 - 13 of 13 items
Cradle Book
By Craig Morgan Teicher. 2010
Timeless yet timely and hopeful with a dark underbelly, these fables revive a tradition running from Aesop to W.S. Merwin.…
With a poet's mastery, Craig Morgan Teicher creates strange worlds populated by animals fated for disaster and the people who interact with them, or simply act like them, including a very sad boy who wishes he had been raised by wolves. There are also a handful of badly behaving gods, a talking tree, and a shape-shifting room.Craig Morgan Teicher is poetry editor of Publishers Weekly and a vice president on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.The Tao and Mother Goose
By Robert Carter. 1988
Art instrutor Rober Carter's illustrated book is both enjoyable and informative, written in an engaging style. Rhymes of Mother Goose…
he suggests, frequently are spiritual parables. He compares many of the famous aphorisms from Lao Tsu's Tao The Ching, noting simitarities of viewpoints. Carter feels that teaching of the Chinese philosopher and even Mother Goose nursery rhymes are addresses to some deeper level within each one of us. Consequently, a simple word, phrase, or idea in this meditative picture book might spark something deep within the reader.The Tao and Mother Goose
By Robert Carter. 1988
The Strange Truth About Us
By M.A.C. Farrant. 2011
This tell-all book by M.A.C. Farrant, whom Publishers Weekly has celebrated as "a brave iconoclast" and whose work the Globe…
& Mail has said "bristles with moral fury ... at the absurdities of our accelerated age and a great dose of laugh-out-loud humour," offers her readers nothing less than The Strange Truth About Us.A three-part novel-length work of prose fragments, snippets, questions, speculations, and meditations, by turns philosophical, dark, comedic, and lyrical, it attempts to imagine a multitude of possible futures for our garrisoned world."Annotations About an Absence" is a series of 115 numbered annotations to the day-long ruminations of a retired couple living in a gated community attempting to create an imaginary novel in which they express their fears about the future: "We attempt to express the universal confusion of mind that is the main feature of contemporary life. Which is? We are afraid.""Woman Records Brief Notes Regarding Absence" is written as a series of notes to these annotations, providing (in the utterly blank spirit of transparency) a running satiric narrative on the project. Each of these "notes" is written as if it were a description of a late-night TV movie or the content of a wet Jehovah's Witness pamphlet left on a woman's doorstep that has taken hold of her mind."Other Prose Surrounding Absence" comprises twenty-seven prose pieces that take aim at a globalized world bludgeoned by the threat of "end times"-climate change, species extinction, pandemics, and really bad politics-that seem designed insofar as we are able to retain our status as "individuals."Unique in style and approach, engaging, enigmatic, controversial, and delightful, this book is an attempt to prick the bubble of our complacency in the face of the "awful atrocity" we've made for ourselves.Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty
By Desmond Tutu, Mayumi Oda, Anne Herbert, Margaret Paloma Pavel. 2014
With beautifully crafted words and exuberant watercolor illustrations, Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty offers a poetic and empowering…
message for world peace. Recognizing "we are right on the edge of destroying ourselves," this modern allegory inspires taking joyful steps to end violence. It expands upon the idea that "we are all in the circle together," and presents a timeless parable for readers of all ages. The Haiku-like text delivers a call to "make a new earth grow beneath our feet." In the playful style of 12th century Japanese picture scrolls, Mayumi Oda's art depicts humans as animals who lose their way when their leaders become confused and drawn to violence. It is up to each individual? the frog who plants a thriving garden, the cat who supports an elderly neighbor as they walk? to create a better world through simple acts of kindness. The message of this book is the sweet realization that each person can become an agent of goodness and beauty. This twentieth-anniversary, full-color edition, with a new foreword by venerable peacemaker Desmond Tutu, is dedicated to world peace and recovery in the face of world climate crises. All royalties will be donated to community resiliency across boundaries and antinuclear advocacy.Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty
By Desmond Tutu, Mayumi Oda, Anne Herbert, Margaret Paloma Pavel. 2014
With beautifully crafted words and exuberant watercolor illustrations, Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty offers a poetic and empowering…
message for world peace. Recognizing "we are right on the edge of destroying ourselves," this modern allegory inspires taking joyful steps to end violence. It expands upon the idea that "we are all in the circle together," and presents a timeless parable for readers of all ages. The Haiku-like text delivers a call to "make a new earth grow beneath our feet." In the playful style of 12th century Japanese picture scrolls, Mayumi Oda's art depicts humans as animals who lose their way when their leaders become confused and drawn to violence. It is up to each individual? the frog who plants a thriving garden, the cat who supports an elderly neighbor as they walk? to create a better world through simple acts of kindness. The message of this book is the sweet realization that each person can become an agent of goodness and beauty. This twentieth-anniversary, full-color edition, with a new foreword by venerable peacemaker Desmond Tutu, is dedicated to world peace and recovery in the face of world climate crises. All royalties will be donated to community resiliency across boundaries and antinuclear advocacy.Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty
By Desmond Tutu, Mayumi Oda, Anne Herbert, Margaret Paloma Pavel. 2014
With beautifully crafted words and exuberant watercolor illustrations, Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty offers a poetic and empowering…
message for world peace. Recognizing "we are right on the edge of destroying ourselves," this modern allegory inspires taking joyful steps to end violence. It expands upon the idea that "we are all in the circle together," and presents a timeless parable for readers of all ages. The Haiku-like text delivers a call to "make a new earth grow beneath our feet." In the playful style of 12th century Japanese picture scrolls, Mayumi Oda's art depicts humans as animals who lose their way when their leaders become confused and drawn to violence. It is up to each individual? the frog who plants a thriving garden, the cat who supports an elderly neighbor as they walk? to create a better world through simple acts of kindness. The message of this book is the sweet realization that each person can become an agent of goodness and beauty. This twentieth-anniversary, full-color edition, with a new foreword by venerable peacemaker Desmond Tutu, is dedicated to world peace and recovery in the face of world climate crises. All royalties will be donated to community resiliency across boundaries and antinuclear advocacy.Courting the Wild Twin
By Martin Shaw. 2020
Master mythologist Martin Shaw uses timeless story-wisdom to examine our broken relationship with the world There is an old legend…
that says we each have a wild, curious twin that was thrown out the window the night we were born, taking much of our vitality with them. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on Earth, we can be sure that the wild twin is holding the key. In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild twin––a metaphor for the part of ourselves that we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms––to invite them back into our consciousness, for they have something important to tell us. He challenges us to examine our broken relationship with the world, to think boldly, wildly, and in new ways about ourselves—as individuals and as a collective. Through the use of scholarship, storytelling, and personal reflection, Shaw unpacks two ancient European fairy tales that concern the mysterious wild twin. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he suggests we can restore our agency and confront modern challenges with purpose, courage, and creativity. Courting the Wild Twin is a declaration of literary activism and an antidote to the shallow thinking that typifies our age. Shaw asks us to recognize mythology as a secret weapon—a radical, beautiful, heart-shuddering agent of deep, lasting change.Cradle Book (American Readers Series)
By Craig Morgan Teicher. 2010
Timeless yet timely and hopeful with a dark underbelly, these fables revive a tradition running from Aesop to W.S. Merwin.…
With a poet&’s mastery, Craig Morgan Teicher creates strange worlds populated by animals fated for disaster and the people who interact with them, or simply act like them, including a very sad boy who wishes he had been raised by wolves. There are also a handful of badly behaving gods, a talking tree, and a shape-shifting room.Craig Morgan Teicher is poetry editor of Publishers Weekly and a vice president on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass
By Martin Shaw. 2021
"With potent, lyrical language and a profound knowledge of storytelling, Shaw encourages and illuminates the mythic in our own lives.…
He is a modern-day bard." – Madeline Miller, author of Circe and The Song of Achilles At a time when we are all confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our modern lives—identity, technology, trust, politics, and a global pandemic—celebrated mythologist and wilderness guide Martin Shaw delivers Smoke Hole: three metaphors to help us understand our world, one that is assailed by the seductive promises of social media and shadowed by a health crisis that has brought loneliness and isolation to an all-time high. Smoke Hole is a passionate call to arms and an invitation to use these stories to face the complexities of contemporary life, from fake news, parenthood, climate crises, addictive technology and more. Shaw urges us to reclaim our imagination and untangle ourselves from modern menace, letting these tales be our guide. More Praise: "I can still remember the first time I heard Martin Shaw tell a story. The tale that emerged was like a living thing, bounding around, throwing itself at us there listening. I had never heard anything like it before." – Paul Kingsnorth, Booker shortlisted author of The Wake "Martin Shaw’s work is so very beautiful. A new animal. His love of images is deep and contagious." – Coleman Barks, author of The Essential Rumi "Through feral tales and poetic exegesis, Martin Shaw makes you re-see the world, as a place of adventure, and of initiation, as perfect home, and as perfectly other. What a gift." – David Keenan, author of Xstabeth "Shaw has so much wisdom and knowledge about the old stories, it emanates from his pores." – John Densmore, The DoorsThe Dao in Action: Inspired Tales for Life
By Jwing-Ming Yang. 2019
In this collection of fables, Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming shares the stories that have influenced him most as a martial artist…
and lifelong student of the Dao. They bring the Dao to life for readers of all generations. Whoever we are, wherever we’re going, these short tales help us along the path—the Way. Some offer the traveler a moral compass. Some illustrate the dangers in human folly. Others just make us laugh. The Dao in Action will inspire young readers to refine their character. Older readers will smile and recognize moments of truth. This collection is for anyone who would like to explore the enduring lessons of martial wisdom. Fables entertain us, enlighten us, and guide us. We recognize ourselves in the characters, be they emperors, village girls, or singing frogs. They help us see our own weaknesses, strengths, and possibilities. Their lessons transcend time and culture, touching what it really means to be alive. For example, in life we must ask questions, learn from others, and find our place in the world. On the other hand, there is real danger in worrying too much about what others think. This lesson is clear—and very humorous—in the story “A Donkey, a Father, and a Son.” We must help others and give of ourselves, but we must also guard against those who would take advantage of us, as in “The Wolf, the Scholar, and the Old Man.” We should save our money and plan for the future, but we must also resist greed, lest we end up “A Rich Man in Jail.” These lean, concise fables illustrate that balance, the duality of yin and yang, always shifting, always in correction. They help us laugh at our human predicaments—and maybe even at ourselves.Monkey: A Journey to the West
By David Kherdian. 1992
Part spiritual pilgrimage, part historical epic, the folk novel Journey to the West, which came to be known as Monkey,…
is the most popular classic of Asian literature. Originally written in the sixteenth century, it is the story of the adventures of the rogue-trickster Monkey and his encounters with a bizarre cast of characters as he travels to India with the Buddhist pilgrim Tripitaka in search of sacred scriptures. Much more than a picaresque adventure novel, Monkey is a profound allegory of the struggle that must occur before spiritual transformation is possible. David Kherdian's masterful telling brings this classic of Chinese literature to life in a way that is true to the scope and depth of the original.The Ultimate Walking Dead and Philosophy
By Wayne Yuen. 2016
In The Walking Dead, human beings are pushed to their limits by a zombie apocalypse and have to decide what…
really matters. Good and evil, freedom and slavery, when one life has to be sacrificed for another, even the nature of religion-all the ultimate questions of human existence are posed afresh as the old society crumbles away and a new form of society emerges, with new beliefs and new rules. The Ultimate Walking Dead and Philosophy brings together twenty philosophers with different perspectives on the imagined world of this addictive TV show. How can we keep our humanity when faced with such extreme life-or-death choices? Did Dr. Jenner do the right thing in committing suicide, when all hope seemed to be lost? Does the Governor, as the new Machiavelli, prove that willingness to repeatedly commit murder is the best technique for getting and keeping political power? Why do most characters place such importance on keeping particular individuals alive, especially children? What can we learn about reality from Rick's haunting hallucinations?