Category: around the web

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Italian Painter Becomes Hermit

Il Fatto Quotidiano (Italy) offers a report on painter-artist Gabriele, who was a “rising artist.” The article summarizes his artistic life:

“In 2006 Gabriele won the ManinFesto competition at the Villa Manin Contemporary Art Center. In 2008 he was among the seven winners of the Terna 01 award and in 2009 he qualified among the finalists of the second round. Thanks to this recognition he exhibited at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. He has participated in art fairs in Bologna, Verona, Turin (Artissima), Karlsruhe, and the Pulse in Miami. A canvas of Gabriele appears in the Oscar-winning film La Grande Bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino. His works are part of important public and private collections .”

Then, one day, Gabriele gave it all up — and became a hermit. He became Friar Gabriele (Fra Gabriele) and moved to Romita di Cesi, in the province ofTerni in central Italy. Romita di Cesi was originally a medieval Franciscan hermitage, since long abandoned, only refurbished in 1991 by by its only resident, 83-year old Fra Bernardino. The hermitage today serves as a retreat house. Fra Gagriele lives an eremitic life there but regularlyvhelps Fra Bernardino with chores inthe garden and preparing firewood.

URL: https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2022/04/18/gabriele-era-un-pittore-in-ascesa-poi-e-diventato-un-eremita-una-vita-meditativa-ma-anche-faticosa/6555870/

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Vatican document on hermits

Aleteia notes that the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life announces a new document regulating canonical and other Catholic hermits. The document titled “Ponam in Deserto Viam” was issued in September 2021 but is announced now in February 2022.

The document is not so much regulation as guidelines. It emphasizes the psychological status of the hermit, assuming the hermit’s religious motives. It counsels an organization of daily life, recommends work, regularity to food (versus extremes), and cautions that a life of solitude should not be “too isolated” from others. The hermitage should provide subsistance, and approximation to medical and other resources. The life of the hermit represents a radical vision, states the document, but one that silently demonstrates to others “that it is beautiful to dwell in God alone.”

URL: https://fr.aleteia.org/2022/02/22/pour-la-premiere-fois-rome-donne-des-orientations-aux-ermites/

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Choosing to Choose Company

The title of a recent Psychology Today article addresses the topic:”Why Being Forced to Socialize Can Be So Miserable.”The main points converge around the choice to be alone or with others, with the lowest degree of hapiness or satisfaction occurring when one is not in the company of others by choice. Among the source studies forthis article is a recent studiy published in the Journal of Happiness Studies.

URL: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202203/why-being-forced-socialize-can-be-so-miserable

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Arthur C. Brooks: Life Advice

For simple but wise life advice, Arthur C. Brooks at Atlantic is a consistently useful resource. His little essays perfectly fit in a world of pragmatism and individual efforts to survive if not thrive. Brooke, a Harvard social scientist, is approachable and down-to-earth. Watch or listen for echoes of the Stoics, Cynics, and Taoists. Brooke also has a pocast titled How to Build a Happy Life and writtes his short pithy practical pointed little essays every week or so. Here are a few recent favorites from the last couple of months:

How to Want Less
Art Should be a Habit, Not a Luxury
Live Like the Ancient Cynics
Listen to Your Own Advice
When You Can’t Change the World, Change Your Feelings
How to Identify What You Enjoy
Quit Lying to Yourself
No One Cares!
What Winter-Haters Get Wrong
How to Know That You Know Nothing
How Not to Be Your Own Worst Enemy
How to Know You’re Lonely
How to be Self-Aware

URL: the essays: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/arthur-c-brooks/;
the podcast: https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/how-to-build-a-happy-life/

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“How to be Useless” and “Going Slow”

Popularizing Eastern philosophy for practica life experience are a couple of recent articles. Online magazine Psyche offers a short piece on Taoism : “How to be Useless,” with the byline: “Follow the Daoist way – reclaim your life and happiness by letting go of the need to produce, strive or serve a purpose.” Another article is “Going Slow” in Daily Philosophy, discussing the “rhetoric os slowness” found in Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist texts.

URL: https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-wander-free-and-easy-through-life-by-being-useless and https://daily-philosophy.com/kidd-going-slow/.