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Whatever men make, what they felt when they made it is there. If it was made to make money, it will smell of money. That's why these houses are so ugly, all they cut are still in them. All the savings. That's why the cathederals are so lovely ... Think of a painter. He stands in front of the canvas with a color on his brush. Whatever he feels when he makes the mark - if he's tired or bored or happy and proud - will be there.The same color, but we'll feel it. Like fingerprints. Like handwriting. Man is a mechanism for turning things into spirit and turning spirit into things.

The point is ecstacy. Energy. Anything that is good is ecstacy. The world is what God made and it doesn't stink of money, it's never tired, too much or too little, it's always exactly full. The second after an earthquake, the stones are calm. Everywhere is play, even in thunder or an avalanche. We don't feel it because our egos make us insensitive. Our egos make us blind and deaf. Whenever we think about ourselves, it's like putting a piece of dirt in our eye. Without our egos the universe would be absolutely clean, all the animals and rocks and spiders and moon-rocks and stars and grains of sand absolutely doing their thing, unselfconsciously.

- John Updike

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Last modified : June 20, 1999.
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