TIGblogs - Allan Cox

Your Inner CEO

Density
There’s a tree that enlarges nature and looks like ganglia—I mean snaky synapse, making contact with an animating current—a leap to life. When I first took it in, I saw only a Quasimodo awkwardness that gave way in moments to my trust in its presence and goodness, to its core and its name itself— The Valley Oak. It’s not your every-day tree, though who, with sense, can spurn the miracle of any tree? This one, though, wraps my body into it with firmness, without which, in me, a loneliness, only looking, and lacking that enfolding. Now solid in its impregnable sanctum I see, surprised, the shade it provides cows, languorous, in blistering summer sun. My friend Marv sent me a picture—haunting—of this tree just past dawn in the mist of early Spring in northern California, and my visual contact with it again thrust me into the folds of a visionary week, its image hazy in the mist . Rather, it fades true, as a ganglion ghost—gnarly, twisted branches—into the hooded background of a muscled fence, twin posts cradling rails between them; a sturdy bracing in tune—a guardian brother holding dense faith alongside the its massive trunk—all of it of a piece, a bordered block of pulse churned full by an abundance of ground water and a root system to pierce the deepest mind. This lordly umbrella, its buds budding, wider than it is tall, is lifting towards 100 feet, yet bending low, patient, warm. ready always to receive my advance, its density an availed purity. I live like a king. How can I be like this tree? From Allan Cox’s collection, “In the Middle of Time.” Copyright©2009, all rights reserved.

March 10, 2010 | 6:03 AM

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Book Note: The Soul’s Code
I just finished this book—easy to read, not always to understand, so singular and right-minded in its message and foundation—requiring fierce commitment. For me, it was a revelation on life’s calling. It reminded me of Kierkegaard’s classic Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. I recommend it highly to the open-minded. Author is James Hillman. Order from the Amazon Ferris Wheel nearby.

March 9, 2010 | 6:03 AM

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Code
It seems we all have a code to live by that is ours alone. We read about and meet people who excelled by coming under the rugged tutelage of a master adult who, without knowing it, taught them to follow that code. We may get grand ideas while the code calls small and true. Who taught you? Are you still listening? From Allan Cox’s collection, “Light Log on the Fire.” Copyright© 2010, all rights reserved.

March 3, 2010 | 12:03 PM

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Allan's Book Note: American Sketches
This book is a pleasant survey and recounting of some of our leading-light founders, statesman, politicians (Harry Truman said a statesman is a politician who’s been dead 10 years), journalists, scientists, technologists and personages who have left their mark on our country and world. The author is Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He’s written heralded biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger and Albert Einstein. His brief sketches of these and others make a good three-sitting book that can jog your memory of their gifts and flaws, perhaps open your eyes to some you had overlooked. For example, I’ve never cared for Woody Allen’s artistic endeavors as much as most people, but Isaacson’s interview of him at the time of his controversial relationship with Mia Farrow’s adopted teen-age daughter turned him into a person whose motives and actions I no longer question. Of course, you could say it was none of my business to begin with. There are other treats here. Order from the Amazon Ferris Wheel nearby.

March 1, 2010 | 2:03 AM

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Cradled
KathleenNorris writes ofthe special blue ofDakota’s sky. Paintersand artisans extolthe light inthe South of France. Landformations in andaround Asheville, NorthCarolina are said toshare properties ofthe Fertile Crescent ofthe Old Testament. Theeffect of these claims onme is suspension. DoI startle with“Oh, really now?” DoI find pleasure inwhat may be myth? AmI flippant with “Well,maybe, so what?” Truthis, I want to believe andso I do, cradledlike a child ina bough thatnever breaks. FromAllan Cox’s collection, “Thin Wall of Radiance.” Copyright©2009, all rights reserved.

February 24, 2010 | 9:02 AM

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