People From Columbus

"Around the age of 20, I was doing unusual performance pieces focused on the exploration of polarities. This was a somewhat naive and intuitive venture based on my dreams and visions. I hadn’t yet encountered Taoism or other mystical teachings related to duality and the union of opposites. … One of my more dramatic polarity performances was to journey up to the North Magnetic Pole. After returning from the Pole, having spent all my money, two life-changing events occurred: At a party, I took LSD for the first time. Sitting with my physical eyes closed, my inner eye moved through a beautiful spiral tunnel. The walls of the tunnel seemed like living mother-of-pearl; it felt like a spiritual rebirth canal. I was in the darkness, spiraling toward the light. The curling space going from black to gray to white suggested to me the resolution of all polarities. My artistic rendering of this event was titled "The Polar Unity Spiral." Soon after this, I changed my name to Grey as a way of bringing the opposites together. The other life-changing event was meeting my wife, Allyson, that same evening. She was the only other person at the party who had taken LSD. We made a profound connection at that time, and have been together ever since. It’s been twenty-five years."

"It is the prayer of my innermost being To realize my supreme identity In the liberated play of consciousness, The Vast Expanse. Now is the moment, Here is the place of Liberation."

"I subject my awareness to the perfection of being, The perfection of wisdom and perfection of love, All of these being co-present in the Vast Expanse. I share this panorama of Being And appreciate all I can share it with… The seamless interweaving of consciousness With each moment Create perfection wherever you go With your awareness."

"Life is infinite creative play. Enjoyment and participation in this creative play Is the artists profound joy. We co-author every moment With universal creativity."

"Every artist who’s really into their work disappears into the creative flow. This is akin to some of the concentration-oriented meditations of the various sacred traditions. Images come in all different ways. You can get visions when you’re tripping on drugs, when you’re dreaming or in a hypnogogic state before dropping off to sleep, while listening to music or even waiting for the subway."

"You can never be lost. When have you ever been apart from me?"

"1. GOD CREATES THE COSMOS WITH LOVE. 2. WHEN WE CREATE WITH LOVE WE ALIGN OURSELVES WITH THE GOD FORCE. 3. THE COSMOS AND OUR WORLD IS GOD’S EVOLVING CREATION, AN UNFINISHED MASTERPIECE WE EACH CO-CREATE."

"In a society that tries to standardize thinking, individuality is not highly prized."

"7. CREATING SACRED SPACE MIRRORS GOD’S CREATION. 8. OUR CHALLENGE AS CO-CREATORS IS TO MIRROR GOD’S LOVE AND BEAUTY IN ALL OUR CREATIONS."

"The Artist is a tiny reflection of the One Creative Spirit that generates and is all realities. God creates the cosmos with love. God is the creator of the unfinished masterpiece, "Time/Space Continuum," which each of us helps co-create. The artist faces the blank canvas and invents new realities, and in a very tiny microcosmic way this reflects the macrocosm. The highest art aligns us with the "Divine Imagination," as Blake called it, and empowers our Soul, catalyzing our path to becoming the greatest person we can be."

"Don't look back!"

"He called Tull a binder of women, a callous beast who hid behind a mock mantle of righteousness—an’ the last an’ lowest coward on the face of the earth. To prey on weak women through their religion—that was the last unspeakable crime!"

"I’ll say that mercy an’ goodness, such as is in you, though they’re the grand things in human nature, can’t be lived up to on this Utah border. Life’s hell out here. You think—or you used to think—that your religion made this life heaven. Mebbe them scales on your eyes has dropped now. Jane, I wouldn’t have you no different, an’ that’s why I’m going to try to hide you somewhere in this Pass. I’d like to hide many more women, for I’ve come to see there are more like you among your people. An’ I’d like you to see jest how hard an’ cruel this border life is. It’s bloody. You’d think churches an’ churchmen would make it better. They make it worse. You give names to things—bishops, elders, ministers, Mormonism, duty, faith, glory. You dream—or you’re driven mad. I’m a man, an’ I know. I name fanatics, followers, blind women, oppressors, thieves, ranchers, rustlers, riders. An’ we have—what you’ve lived through these last months. It can’t be helped. But it can’t last always."

"Remembering Jane’s accusation of bitterness, he tried hard to put aside his rancor in judging Tull. But it was bitter knowledge that made him see the truth. He had felt the shadow of an unseen hand; he had watched till he saw its dim outline, and then he had traced it to a man’s hate, to the rivalry of a Mormon Elder, to the power of a Bishop, to the long, far-reaching arm of a terrible creed."

"You know, in every Mormon village there are women who seem mysterious to us, but about Milly there was more than the ordinary mystery. When she came to Cottonwoods she had a beautiful little girl whom she loved passionately. Milly was not known openly in Cottonwoods as a Mormon wife. That she really was a Mormon wife I have no doubt. Perhaps the Mormon’s other wife or wives would not acknowledge Milly. Such things happen in these villages. Mormon wives wear yokes, but they get jealous. Well, whatever had brought Milly to this country—love or madness of religion—she repented of it. She gave up teaching the village school. She quit the church. And she began to fight Mormon upbringing for her baby girl. Then the Mormons put on the screws—slowly, as is their way. At last the child disappeared. ‘Lost’ was the report. The child was stolen, I know that. So do you."

"For hand in glove with that power was an insatiate greed; they were one and the same."

"To bear up under loss — to fight the bitterness of defeat and the weakness of grief — to be victor over anger — to smile when tears are close — to resist evil men and base instincts — to hate hate and to love love — to go on when it would seem good to die — to seek ever after the glory and the dream — to look up with unquenchable faith in something evermore about to be — that is what any man can do, and so be great."

"If I fished only to capture fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago."

"Lassiter, the men of my creed are unnaturally cruel. To my everlasting sorrow I confess it. They have been driven, hated, scourged till their hearts have hardened. But we women hope and pray for the time when our men will soften.” “Beggin’ your pardon, ma’am—that time will never come.” “Oh, it will!... Lassiter, do you think Mormon women wicked? Has your hand been against them, too?” “No. I believe Mormon women are the best and noblest, the most long-sufferin’, and the blindest, unhappiest women on earth.”"

"It was the elision of the weaker element — the survival of the fittest; and some, indeed very many, mothers must lose their sons that way."

"We'll use a signal I have tried and found far-reaching and easy to yell. Waa-hoo!"

"he was a stranger in a strange land"

"I know Mormons. I’ve seen their women’s strange love en’ patience en’ sacrifice an’ silence en’ whet I call madness for their idea of God. An’ over against that I’ve seen the tricks of men. They work hand in hand, all together, an’ in the dark. No man can hold out against them, unless he takes to packin’ guns. For Mormons are slow to kill. That’s the only good I ever seen in their religion. Venters, take this from me, these Mormons ain’t just right in their minds. Else could a Mormon marry one woman when he already has a wife, an’ call it duty?"

"Puzzles. I hate puzzles. Ivan liked flowcharts—nice and clear and you could always tell just where you were and what you should do next, everything laid out neatly. No ambiguities. No traps. Why couldn’t life be more like flowcharts?"

"How many details had to point in the same direction before one decided they pointed true? Depends on how costly it is to be mistaken, maybe?"

"So far from a trudge, she seemed to find the task tolerably amusing. “Oh, languages aren’t work,” she explained cheerily. “They’re a game. Now, economics, that’s boring.”"

"He stared at the two bundles more than filling his lap in a kind of cosmic amazement. “We did it,” he muttered to Ekaterin, now perching on the chair arm. “Why didn’t anybody stop us? Why aren’t there more regulations about this sort of thing? What fool in their right mind would put me in charge of a baby? Two babies?”"

"“Not treason,” haut Pel objected faintly. “As such.” “Unsanctioned unilateral redesign, then.”"

"He had been the end point of human evolution. At this moment he abruptly felt more like a missing link. I thought I knew everything. Surely I knew nothing. How had his own life become such a surprise to him, so utterly rearranged? His brain had whirled with a thousand plans for these tiny lives, visions of the future both hopeful and dire, funny and fearful. For a moment, it seemed to come to a full stop. I have no idea who these two people are going to be."

"Just because I have forgotten so many old enemies does not mean they have forgotten me."

"The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them."

"Yet if the truth doesn’t serve us, what does that say about us, eh?"

"He was borrowing trouble, reasoning in advance of his data."

"“I will consider this contention,” said Greenlaw dryly, with the For about ten seconds, after which I shall toss it out the nearest airlock hanging unspoken."

"There is a great deal of sanity to be saved in letting the past go, and moving on."

"If you make it plain you like people, it’s hard for them to resist liking you back."

"There’s nothing like the threat of imminent death to force one to delegate."

"And in her way, I suppose, she loved us, and naturally wanted us to have this great thing she'd found, too. Except... I wasn't her. It was like... if she could just fix me into being her, then she could shower me with the gifts she so valued."

"Military intelligence was as nothing to military stupidity."

"I smell diplomacy. Miles grimaced."

"There were security angles, political angles, personal angles—how many angles could dance on the head of a pin?"

"I’d have worn them as a courtesy to your friend...I’ll wear them now as a defiance to our enemies."

"Your talent for making interesting new enemies has evidently not deserted you."

"Taura nailed it. She'll do for m'lord, all right. And God help their enemies."

"“Anyway, he thinks we’re lying. But we’re not. Also, your people are idiots.” “Yes. I know. But they’re my idiots."

"“I am a bodyguard by trade,” she said, evidently continuing a conversation with Lady Vorpatril. “How can I kick someone’s teeth in wearing this?” “A woman wearing that suit, my dear, will have volunteers to kick in annoying persons’ teeth for her,” said Lady Alys."

"“When he invited me to one for the Winterfair season, I wasn’t sure if it was hunting or social, and whether I should pack weapons or dresses.” Lady Vorpatril’s smile sharpened. “Dresses are weapons, my dear, in sufficiently skilled hands.”"

"Life’s uncertain out there. Things can go down bad, fast, anytime. We all just get a time, in our different ways."

"If power was an illusion, wasn’t weakness necessarily one also?"

"“So much for that line of reasoning, Lord Richars,” Ekaterin finished. She sat back with a hand-dusting gesture, and added, by no means under her breath, “Twit.”"