Bogwitch

America is, and always has been, undecided about whether it will be the United States of Tom or the United States of Huck. The United States of Tom looks at misery and says: Hey, I didn’t do it. It looks at inequity and says: All my life I busted my butt to get where I am, so don’t come crying to me. Tom likes kings, codified nobility, unquestioned privilege. Huck likes people, fair play, spreading the truck around. Whereas Tom knows, Huck wonders. Whereas Huck hopes, Tom presumes. Whereas Huck cares, Tom denies. These two parts of the American Psyche have been at war since the beginning of the nation, and come to think of it, these two parts of the World Psyche have been at war since the beginning of the world, and the hope of the nation and of the world is to embrace the Huck part and send the Tom part back up the river, where it belongs.

—

George Saunders in The Braindead Megaphone (via lukescommonplacebook)

Huh!

24 May 2013 • reblog: lukescommonplacebook • literature Mark Twain Tom Sawyer Huckleberry Finn America politics ethics society culture USA

toothpastecomics:

Come on. Just small talk. From Toothpaste For Dinner

I’m fine with being creepy if it means I don’t have to participate.

19 May 2013 • reblog: toothpastecomics • webcomic toothpaste for dinner language

travelthisworld:

Danxia Landform - Zhangye, Gansu, China | by Melinda

19 May 2013 • reblog: travelthisworld • China landscape colors mountain

colchrishadfield:

Today’s photo is from the Mongolian highlands. Surreal to see a frozen lake surrounded by sand dunes.

Mongolia does what it wants!

19 May 2013 • reblog: colchrishadfield • Mongolia space water ice sand

Seriously, NonFic is exhausting. But I have like 30 checked out right now anyway.

(Source: englishmajorhumor, via shrinkinglibrarian)

19 May 2013 • reblog: englishmajorhumor • Calvin & Hobbes library book books reading humor

(via dogsandcatslivingtogether)

19 May 2013 • reblog: theinternetsanimals • dog sheep sheepdog interspecies friendship

marcyowensis:

awelltraveledwoman:

the-forward-observer:

catholic-on-the-internet:

awkwardsituationist:

98 year old dobri dobrev, a man who lost his hearing in the second world war, walks 10 kilometers from his village in his homemade clothes and leather shoes to the city of sofia, where he spends the day begging for money.

though a well known fixture around several of the city’s churches, known for his prostrations of thanks to all donors, it was only recently discovered that he has donated every penny he has collected — over 40,000 euros — towards the restoration of decaying bulgarian monasteries and churches and the utility bills of orphanages, living instead off his monthly state pension of 80 euros.

19 May 2013 • reblog: awkwardsituationist • compassion people beauty

In every important way we are such secrets from one another, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate jurisprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable - which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge, more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, intraversable, and utterly vast spaces between us.

—

Marilynn Robinson, Gilead (via thegayguyyouneverknewyouknew)

Pretty sure I Tumbled this same quote somewhere back there when I read it, but reblog for relevance & beauty.

19 May 2013 • reblog: thegayguyyouneverknewyouknew • litereature Marilynne Robinson language people compassion Gilead

urbangreens:

landscape-a-design:

Private Garden Paradise in Chelsea | HomeDSGN

“the garden is simply spectacular. The mature, fully-landscaped rooftop spreads over 1,600 square feet on multiple levels with fascinating architectural elements, making for intimate seating areas, sensory dining opportunities and infinite possibilities for entertaining. A rare, sensory retreat in the heart of the city.”

I love plants and I love cities. A garden like this would be paradise for me

I…I…I…can’t even.

19 May 2013 • reblog: landscape-a-design • garden architecture