on false beginnings (miller)

As for spiritual resources, has there ever been a deficiency? Only in man’s mind.

The air is full of theories about the new order, the new dispensation. Marvelous pictures are painted of the period just around the bend, when we of this earth will see the end of making war, when atomic energy will be utilized for the benefit of all mankind. But no one acts as if this glorious age which is dawning were an imminent, wholly realizable, thoroughly practicable one, indeed the only viable one. It is a beautiful subject for discussion at cocktail hour, when all the current topics have been chewed to a frazzle.

- 131, "Part Two: Peace and Solitude: A Potpourri," Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller