The Andis Kaulins Anti-Blog: September 2023

Walking up the stairs of my two floor apartment in Jiangyin, China, I feel old. Here’s a poem about old age that comforts me. Especially the last line.

Old Age by Edmund Waller

The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er;
So calm are we when passions are no more.
For then we know how vain it was to boast
Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost.
Clouds of affection from our younger eyes
Conceal that emptiness which age descries.

The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time hath made:
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become
As they draw near to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

A Comforting Thought from José María Escrivá

Todos los pecados de tu vida parece como si se pusieran de pie. —No desconfíes. —Por el contrario, llama a tu Madre Santa María, con fe y abandono de niño. Ella traerá el sosiego a tu alma.

All the sins of your life seem to rise up against you. Don't lose confidence. Rather, call on your holy Mother Mary, with the faith and abandonment of a child. She will bring peace to your soul.

Nothing I can add to that.

Two More Thoughts from NGD

—El hombre les debe con frecuencia a sus defectos los fracasos que evita.

—Man frequently owes to his defects the failures he avoids.

I take this to mean we can avoid a lot of trouble by being imperfect. And that earthly talent can often leads us to places where the devil hangs out.

—Lo que nos enclaustra nos ofrece la posibilidad de ennoblecernos.
Aun cuando sea un simple aguacero.
—What cloisters us gives us the chance to ennoble ourselves.

Even when it is a simple rain shower.

Sometimes I have this agonizing feeling that I come across as an irredeemable phony to others and so cloistered is what I should be.