Kevin Kelly recently wrote about Anne Herbert, a writer he knew in the early ’80′s who edited CoEvolution Quarterly, the companion magazine to Whole Earth Catalog. She is most known for coining the phrase, “Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” Kelly hadn’t been in touch with her in all this time, but remembered her writing:
“…it was telegraphic, lyrical, abbreviated, evocative, extremely personal and mystical. She wrote in short bursts. Like proverbs from a secret bible…It was not like any writing I had encountered…
…She was decades ahead of her time…”
Kelly thought Herbert had disappeared, only to discover that she still writes – in her own blog, ’Peace and Love and Noticing the Details’.
Everything he says about Herbert’s writing is true. It is often like haiku (without the constraints): tiny meditations that caste a unique light on everyday things. Here are some:
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A different kind of solution is needed. To find it, I heal the part of the problem that is inside me.
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Sometimes the people who invent things and the people who find out what things are for are different people.
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Someone who has been deeply wounded must be deeply healed.
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I twist myself into a pretzel to believe the story, the official story of some group I like, to stay inside a “we” I want. Not much nutritional value.
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I might have to cry for a hundred thousand years. Or maybe an accurate laugh would do some of the same work.
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All that room inside a minute, all those seconds, hundredths of a second. All those nanoseconds, and here comes another minute, moving and spacious.
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If I lightly touch and silently thank several trees between where I live and public transportation, it’s a better day.
The texture of the tree bark against my skin implies there are many ways to be alive.
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What is the smallest event you’ve noticed today?
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Flawedness is the only option. I disagree, but there it is. I don’t know how to deal with flawedness in myself or others. Now, that’s a flaw.
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Here is one of Herbert’s longer writings from a 1995 Whole Earth Review. It’s called “Handy Tips on How to Behave at the Death of the World”.
I love these. They remind me of the Tibetan Buddhist ‘Lojong’ mind training slogans
for cultivating loving-kindness. They emphasize meeting the ordinary situations of
life with intelligence and compassion under all circumstances. For instance, “Don’t be swayed by external circumstances”, “Be grateful to everyone” and “Always maintain only a joyful mind”.