On weakness

“And most important, let them believe in themselves, let them be helpless like children, because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible, when he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it’s tender and pliant, but when it’s dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death’s companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.” – Stalker

Reeds cut for thatching
The stumps now stand forgotten
Sprinkled with soft snow.

-Basho

"How simply and accurately life is observed. What discipline of mind and nobility of imagination. The lines are beautiful, because the moment, plucked out and fixed, is one, and falls into infinity." - Tarkovsky on Basho.


Seascape from Schuyler Kelly on Vimeo.