Value for Thursday of Week 35 in the season of Interlude

Being in Reverie

Reverie is a dreamy or musing state; a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts. When we calm ourselves emotionally and mentally, we allow our minds to engage in the relaxing play called reverie. When we let go, we might experience reverie at its fullest.

  • . . . sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind. [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]
  • It is a good idea to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought. [James Douglas]
  • Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul. [Gaston Bachelard]

Reverie is a dreamy or musing state; a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts. When we calm ourselves emotionally and mentally, we allow our minds to engage in the relaxing play called reverie. When we let go, we might experience reverie at its fullest.

Real

True Narratives

I have sat for hours in a sort of reverie, letting my mind have its way without inhibition and direction, and idly noted down the incessant beat of thought upon thought, image upon image. I have observed that my thoughts make all kinds of connections, wind in and out, trace concentric circles, and break up in eddies of fantasy, just as in dreams. One day I had a literary frolic with a certain set of thoughts which dropped in for an afternoon call. I wrote for three or four hours as they arrived, and the resulting record is much like a dream. I found that the most disconnected, dissimilar thoughts came in arm-in-arm--I dreamed a wide-awake dream. The difference is that in waking dreams I can look back upon the endless succession of thoughts, while in the dreams of sleep I can recall but few ideas and images. I catch broken threads from the warp and woof of a pattern I cannot see, or glowing leaves which have floated on a slumber-wind from a tree that I cannot identify. In this reverie I held the key to the company of ideas. I give my record of them to show what analogies exist between thoughts when they are not directed and the behaviour of real dream-thinking. [Helen Keller, The World I Live In (1907), Chapter XV, “A Waking Dream”.]

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Novels:

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Frédéric Chopin’s twenty-one Nocturnes for solo piano (1833-1855) (approx. 108-122’), as a whole, capture the spirit of reverie, though a few of them are tumultuous. “The Italian term ‘notturno’ (‘night piece’) was used in the eighteenth century to mean music for evening entertainment . . .” “The form originated a generation earlier with the English composer-pianist, John Field (1782-1837). Chopin’s Nocturnes become magical and atmospheric ‘songs of the night.’ They are bel canto arias without words, in which the piano is transformed into a singing instrument.” This is music for a warm summer evening, with your windows open. Top recorded performances are by Arthur Rubinstein in 1957, Claudio Arrau in 1967, Maurizio Pollini in 1986, Maria João Pires in 1989, Brigitte Engerer in 1993, Nelson Friere in 2006, Yundi Li in 2010, Nelson Goerner in 2017, Jan Lisiecki in 2021, Alberto Nones in 2024, and Tom Hicks in 2025.

Gabriel Fauré composed thirteen Nocturnes for solo Piano over a span of thirty-six years (1875-1921) (approx. 75-92’). These works are prime examples of French impressionism, with its inherently dream-like quality. “Whilst the appellation ‘Nocturne’ is neutral rather than evocative, it is quite clear that ‘Nocturne’ was chosen for piano pieces of the greatest emotional weight and depth, ranging from the poised equilibrium of No. 4 to the great struggle of No. 13, from the long lines of No. 7 to the terse and epigrammatic No. 9, from the uninterruptedly radiant flow of No. 3 to the inarticulateness of No. 10, from the serenity of No. 6 to the anguish and torment of No. 12. Top recorded performances are by Germaine Thyssens-Valentin in 1956, Jean-Philippe Collard in 1974, Paul Crossley in 2002, Marc-André Hamelin in 2023, and Théo Fouchenneret in 2024.

As most commonly interpreted today and for many years, Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, (Sonata quasi una fantasia, “Moonlight”, Op. 27, No. 2 (1801) (approx. 10-17’), evokes a romantic moonlit evening. The too-slow tempo in most modern interpretations (e.g., Rubinstein and Backhaus) was not what Beethoven intended. Each phrase was supposed to be connected to the next, as though the phrases were building a bridge, with the main chord in each phrase bringing the bridge together. A performance by Glenn Gould retained much of romantic quality without sacrificing Beethoven’s intent. “At the time of writing ‘Moonlight,’ Beethoven’s life was at a breaking point due to several factors. To name just a few, he realized that his worsening deafness might never be cured. He was deeply in love with one of his students (seventeen-year-old Countess Giulietta Gucciardi), who two years later married another man. ‘Moonlight’ Sonata was dedicated to her.” “. . . when the German critic Ludwig Rellstab described the sonata’s famous opening movement as being akin to moonlight flickering across Lake Lucerne, he created a description that would go on to outlive the composer.Top recorded performances are by. Harold Bauer in 1927, Artur Schnabel in 1933, Claudio Arrau in 1962, Wilhelm Kempff in 1965, Alfred Brendel in the 1960s, Radu Lupu in 1972, Emil Gilels in 1980, Daniel Barenboim in 1984, Richard Goode in 1990, Maurizio Pollini in 1992, Ronald Brautigam in 2006, Nelson Friere in 2006, Paul Lewis in 2007, Stewart Goodyear in 2010, Alessio Bax in 2013, Stephen Hough in 2013, Murray Perahia in 2017, Igor Levit in 2019, Valentina Lisitsa in 2020, and Alice Sara Ott in 2023.

Other compositions:

Albums:

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

This Is Our Story

A religion of values and Ethics, driven by love and compassion, informed by science and reason.

PART ONE: OUR STORY

First ingredient: Distinctions. What is the core and essence of being human? What is contentment, or kindliness, or Love? What is gentleness, or service, or enthusiasm, or courage? If you follow the links, you see at a glance what these concepts mean.

PART TWO: ANALYSIS

This site would be incomplete without an analytical framework. After you have digested a few of the examples, feel free to explore the ideas behind the model. I would be remiss if I did not give credit to my inspiration for this work: the Human Faith Project of Calvin Chatlos, M.D. His demonstration of a model for Human Faith began my exploration of this subject matter.

A RELIGION OF VALUES

A baby first begins to learn about the world by experiencing it. A room may be warm or cool. The baby learns that distinction. As a toddler, the child may strike her head with a rag doll, and see that it is soft; then strike her head with a wooden block, and see that it is hard. Love is a distinction: she loves me, or she doesn’t love me. This is true of every human value:

justice, humility, wisdom, courage . . . every single one of them.

This site is dedicated to exploring those distinctions. It is based on a model of values that you can read about on the “About” page. However, the best way to learn about what is in here is the same as the baby’s way of learning about the world: open the pages, and see what happens.

ants organic action machines

Octavio Ocampo, Forever Always

Jacek Yerka, House over the Waterfall

Norman Rockwell, Carefree Days Ahead

WHAT YOU WILL SEE HERE

When you open tiostest.wpengine.com, you will see a human value identified at the top of the page. The value changes daily. These values are designed to follow the seasons of the year.

You will also see an overview of the value, or subject for the day, and then two columns of materials.

The left-side column presents true narratives, which include biographies, memoirs, histories, documentary films and the like; and also technical and analytical writings.

The right-side columns presents the work of the human imagination: fictional novels and stories, music, visual art, poetry and fictional film.

Each entry is presented to help identify the value. Open some of the links and experience our human story, again. It belongs to us all, and each of us is a part of it.

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The Work on the Meditations