Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.
Lewis HydeUncovering secrets is apocalyptic in the simple sense (the Greek root means โan uncoveringโ). In this case, it lifts the shame covers. It allows articulation to enter where silence once ruled.
Lewis HydeThe gift moves towards the empty place. As it turns in its circle it turns towards him who has been empty-handed the longest, and if someone appears elsewhere whose need is greater it leaves its old channel and moves toward him. Our generosity may leave us empty, but our emptiness then pulls gently at the whole until the thing in motion returns to replenish us. Social nature abhors a vacuum.
Lewis HydeThe passage into mystery always refreshes. If, when we work, we can look once a day upon the face of mystery, then our labor satisfies. We are lightened when our gifts rise from pools we cannot fathom. Then we know they are not a solitary egotism and they are inexhaustible.
Lewis HydeAll that we make and do is shaped by the communities and traditions that contain us, not to mention by money, power, politics, and luck. And even should the artist or scientist think she has extracted herself from the world to stand alone in the studio, a tremendous array of faculties and mind-states may well attend her creativity.
Lewis Hyde