Gå på med dødsforakt - skap dig et navn - ikke for å leve og tjene av det - nei - lev livet - vi vet ikke hvad dag våre hjem ligger i ruiner. Ingen gir bort noget - vi må selv være med i dansen - helst foran. Og jo mer vi lever - jo mer vil vi leve - og åpne andres øine for at livet allikevel er skjønt å leve - sol - blomster - hav - himmel - sjø - fugler - musikk.
Det er bare kunsten som kan redde verden idag, musikk og liv.

Bendik Riis i et brev til Paul Johnsen 1940

hentet fra CDROM «Bendik Riis. Maler og poet.» 2010

"What is dance? I am dancing all the time. Every gesture, the body line of every pose, the way I get from place to place, the movement in the acting - none of it would be the way it is if I weren't a dancer." - Ray Bolger

 

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The Song of the Ungrit Runners

We swing ungirded hips, 
And lightened are our eyes, 
The rain is on our lips, 
We do not run for prize. 
We know not whom we trust 
Nor whitherward we fare, 
But we run because we must 
Through the great wide air. 

The waters of the seas 
Are troubled as by storm. 
The tempest strips the trees 
And does not leave them warm. 
Does the tearing tempest pause? 
Do the tree-tops ask it why? 
So we run without a cause 
'Neath the big bare sky. 

The rain is on our lips, 
We do not run for prize. 
But the storm the water whips 
And the wave howls to the skies. 
The winds arise and strike it 
And scatter it like sand, 
And we run because we like it 
Through the broad bright land.

by Charles Hamilton Sorley

“If you don’t like the world the way it is, change it -

 one step at a time. 

Be prepared for how long change might take 

and how hard it will sometimes be. Always remember 

the quote you wrote in your diary after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak:

‘If you can’t fly, 

run; 

if you can’t run, 

walk; 

if you can’t walk, 

crawl; 

but by all means

keep moving.’ ” 

- Marian Wright Edelman 

Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem
Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;
It’s comforting to look up from this roof
And feel that, while all changes, nothing’s lost,
To recollect that in antiquity
The winter solstice fell in Capricorn
And that, in the Orion Nebula,
From swirling gas, new stars are being born.

Timothy Steele, from "Toward the Winter Solstice." 

The one thing in this life we know with certainty. You either watch change happen or you make it happen - but regardless of your involvement it occurs.

-  Sarah Ryhanen