A Joyful Practice

A Note, Links, & Excerpt On The Cornerstones of Friendship & Liberty (a post-practice Monday post) August 5, 2024

Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone cultivating friendship, peace, freedom, and wisdom — especially when it gets hot (inside and outside). Stay hydrated, y’all!

This is a post-practice post related to the practice on Monday, August 5^th. The 2024 prompt question was, “How long is your longest, ongoing friendship with someone perceived as being very different from you?” You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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“No man can read a fine author, and relish him to his very bones, while he reads, without subsequently fancying to himself some ideal image of the man and his mind. And if you rightly look for it, you will almost always find that the author himself has somewhere furnished you with his own picture. For poets (whether in prose or verse), being painters of Nature, are like their brethren of the pencil, the true portrait-painters, who, in the multitude of likenesses to be sketched, do not invariably omit their own; and in all high instances, they paint them without any vanity, though, at times, with a lurking something, that would take several pages to properly define.”

— quoted from “Hawthorne and His Mosses” [a review of the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story collection, Mosses from an Old Manse] by Herman Melville, published pseudonymously by “a Virginian Spending July in Vermont” (as printed in The Literary World on August 17 and 24, 1850)

As I mentioned a little over a month ago, friendship is highly regarded in the Eastern philosophies. The Buddha described sangha (“community”) as one of the three jewels; in other words, it is something of great value. In Yoga and Sāmkhya, two of the six Indian philosophies, the ability to “cultivate a good heart” (i.e., make friends) is so valued it is considered a great power that all humans possess. An underlying element to that discussion, and similar discussions about friendship, is how much easier it is to cultivate a friendship when the people involved are in close proximity and share similar backgrounds (as well as similar expectations).

All that is not to say that it’s impossible to make friends with someone who is different from you. However, consider how much easier it is to connect with someone when you can (literally) see yourself in their visage and when you share the same interests, the same passions, the same vocations and occupations — not to mention similar traumas — and have enough time to discover those similarities. This is exactly what happened when Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne met on August 5,1850, just a few days after Mr. Melville’s 31st birthday.

“I submit it, then, to those best acquainted with the man personally, whether the following is not Nathaniel Hawthorne,–to to himself, whether something involved in it does not express the temper of this mind,–that lasting temper of all true, candid men–a seeker, not a finder yet:–

A man now entered, in neglected attire, with the aspect of a thinker, but somewhat too rough-hewn and brawny for a scholar. His face was full of sturdy vigor, with some finer and keener attribute beneath; though harsh at first, it was tempered with the glow of a large, warm heart, which had force enough to heat his powerful intellect through and through. He advanced to the Intelligencer, and looked at him with a glance of such stern sincerity, that perhaps few secrets were beyond its scope.”

— quoted from “Hawthorne and His Mosses” [a review of the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story collection, Mosses from an Old Manse] by Herman Melville, published pseudonymously by “a Virginian Spending July in Vermont” (as printed in The Literary World on August 17 and 24, 1850)

The authors were part of a small group planning to picnic on the top of Monument Mountain in the Berkshires. When a thunderstorm sent the group rushing into a cave for shelter, the two writers had time to talk: time to talk about their love of literature, writing, and the sea. Perhaps they also had time to discuss the fact that they both lost their fathers when they were young. Mr. Hawthorne’s father died when the author was 4, and Mr. Melville’s when he was 13 (although the latter felt his father’s emotional absence long before his father’s death). Maybe they even discussed their decisions to change the spelling of their surnames. (Although that is highly unlikely.)

Mr. Hawthorne was a bit older (at forty-six) and had already worked for the U. S. Customs Service, for which Mr. Melville would also work a few years after their meeting. Additionally, they were in a community of writers and already familiar with each others work. In fact, they had reviewed each others work. So, their meeting was not impossible or improbable. Neither was it impossible that Nathaniel Hawthorne invited Herman Melville to spend more time in the Berkshires. In fact, given all the other factors, it was possible, even probable, that they would decide to live near each other and cultivate a very deep and close friendship for about two years. It is also not that surprising that, during those two years, they were both very prolific as writers and wrote (and/or published) some of their most popular works.

But, what if they lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean? You know, long before the internet. What if they spoke different languages and had different (cultural) experiences? Although the probability  would have been smaller, it is still possible that they could have appreciated each other’s work. It’s even possible that one could have offered the other a symbolic token of friendship, as Herman Melville did when he dedicated Moby Dick, or The Whale: “In Token of My Admiration for his Genius, This Book is Inscribed to Nathanial [sic] Hawthorne.” While not as probable, it would have been possible — especially when we consider an even grander symbolic token of friendship traveled across the ocean about 35 years after the writers met. And, the people involved in that transatlantic friendship overcame what seemed like an impossible obstacle.

The cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal was placed on a rainy Bedloe’s Island on August 5, 1884.

Click on the excerpt title below to discover why Lady Liberty and Mrs. Gertrude E. Rush (born today in 1880) are today’s “impossible people.”

FTWMI: The Impossible Cornerstones of Liberty

“Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.”

— quoted from the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus

There is no playlist for the Common Ground Meditation Center practices.

The 2023 playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06172020 The Lady’s Power”]

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is a new app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

CORRECTION: During some of the practices, I misspoke when referencing the year the cornerstone was laid at Bedloe’s Island.

### WE ARE EACH OTHER’S MIRROR ###