I could see the concrete need...

I could see the concrete need only after they had pointed it out to the Japanese; I could recognize the neatness of their solution only after they had explained it to us. - P27

It was obvious that the interests of the people in the camp were really very much like those of people everywhere: their health, where and how they lived, the weather, their work, the neighbors, the inconveniences of life and, of course, sex. - P47

How quickly man makes his life—whatever its character may be—into what he can call "normal." What would have seemed a fantastic deprivation to a man comfortable, well fed, and serene in an easy chair at home, had by the end of a few short months become just "life" for us. - P47

Musing further on this tendency of man to "normalize" whatever may come his way, I decided this was, after all, a fortunate trait. - P48

Altogether, then, the normal interests of life were uppermost in our consciousness. Thus, as in the ordinary life of man, personal relations took the center of the stage. Man is primarily a sexual and communal being, and he can exist sanely and happily only in and through the various sorts of relationships he has with his fellow men and women. - P49

These meandering thoughts in camp received confirmation when I heard later of Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous prayer: "Oh Lord, help us to accept those things we cannot change, to be dissatisfied with what we can change, and to be able to discern the difference." - P49

In general, however, the huma...

In general, however, the human ability to adjust is beyond belief. - P19

Consequently, men are likely to accept and even enjoy any large, male society such as a team, an army, or a dorm, more than women do a similar female society. - P19

What was revealed there defied the validity of our usual social judgments. The ordinarily accepted symbols of status—money, family, education, sophistication—were totally irrelevant here. - P23

Perhaps the greatest value of this experience, as of almost all war experiences, was that we worked our way through the false barriers of the world at large to reach our common humanity. In time, we were able to see our neighbors for what they were rather than for what they had. - P24

The core of its strength was what I might call the "mentality of decision." - P27

[오늘의 한문장] Shantung Compound

The one redeeming feature of this dismal spectacle was that it provided invaluable articles for the kind of life we had now obviously to live. - P10

<Something Sweet from Moon...

<Something Sweet from Moonshine>

Apple Pandowdy!

These kids,
Sheriff Robertson said,
ought to have something sweet to
wash down their dusty milk,
And so we did.

-February 1935 - P116

<November Dust>

I walk with Daddy around the farm
and see that
the pond is holding its own,
it will keep Ma’s apple trees alive,
nourish her garden,
help the grass around it grow,
enough to lie in and dream
if I feel like it,
and stand in,
and wait for Mad Dog
when he comes past once a week
on his way from Amarillo,
where he works for the radio.

November 1935 - P211

[오늘의 한문장] 스파이라

에피네프라는 이름도 낯선 전염병. 인구의 급감에 따른 온갖 마비와 장애. 기억과 인격을 데이터화하는 정신 전산화 기술의 개발과, 그 기술을 독점해 고객들에게 제2의 가상 인생 서비스를 제공하는 AEArtificial Eden의 설립. 알고 있던 것과 알지 못하는 것, 대비해 오던 것과 조금도 대비하지 못한 것의 경계가 완전히 무너지고 뒤섞이는 그 혼란 속에서 우린 이후의 인생이 어떻게 될지, 거기에 적응해 내지 못한 인간이 어떻게 될지 조금도 몰랐다.

-알라딘 eBook <스파이라> (김아인 지음) 중에서 - P6