Ernest Hemingway And The Art Of Mindful Living
Saturday, October 6, 2018 20:43
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Ernest Hemingway went out in style—with a double-barrelled shotgun. In saying that, I don’t wish to be seen to be making light of suicide. In my own family, I lost a grandmother, a great-aunt and great-grandfather to suicide, and possibly one or two others as well.
In his final years Hemingway was beset with physical and psychological troubles and was not helped by an American government that trailed him with FBI agents, both in Cuba and in the United States, and which basically told him, through its then ambassador in Cuba, to either leave Cuba or face the consequences (quite likely, a charge of treason). He and his wife left Cuba for good on July 25, 1960, leaving behind thousands of books, personal papers and memorabilia. Hemingway found his own solution to his troubles on July 2, 1961. Even on that last fateful day, J Edgar Hoover’s agents were ambushed just 150 metres from his house in Ketchum, Idaho.
| Fidel Castro and Ernest Hemingway. May 1960. |
| Local fishermen erected this monument in memory of Hemingway at Cojímar, a town east of Havana. |
My wife, youngest son and I were recently in Cuba for a holiday. It was a great trip and we travelled all over Cuba. I loved the people, the architecture of the buildings, the mountains and valleys, and the music. The hotels we stayed in were grand and we also stayed with some delightful Cuban families in their own homes. The people we met were happy for the most part, despite many problems, made much worse by the American embargo. That the latter continues to this day, after almost 60 years, is a disgrace. It does not speak well of the United States. The embargo has been called an act of genocide against the Cuban people—and so it is.
The Cuban people, especially in Havana, revere Ernest Hemingway, and while we were in Havana we went to Hemingway’s former home and farm Finca Vigía (now a museum), the Hotel Ambos Mundos, where he also lived for a time, and the hotel La Terraza de Cojimarand the restaurant-bars El Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio, where Hemingway ate and drank (mostly the latter, its seems). In all these places, and many others, there are photos and other memorabilia recalling Hemingway’s presence in Cuba. Books or parts of his novels were written on the island. Copies of those books, as well as many biographies of the man and his life in Cuba, can be purchased in Havana book shops and elsewhere in Cuba.
| Entrance to Finca Vigía |
| My wife and son outside Finca Vigía |
| Yours truly at Finca Vigía |
Hemingway’s writing style has been much written about and discussed. He was the master of the short sentence and direct speech. He used no unnecessary words. His themes arise from and out of the story, as opposed to being thrust upon the reader as is the case with many writers. He was a master of mindfulness, recording what happens more-or-less as it happens. Even when one of his characters recalls something that has already happened, the remembrance of the event takes place in the context of the character rememberingin the present moment what has already happened. That is the essence of mindfulness, along with remembering to stay present in the present moment, from one moment to the next, and remembering what is present.
| Hemingway’s study in Finca Vigía |
| Finca Vigía |
Listen to these words from chapter 13 of For Whom the Bell Tolls. (Some of that book was written in Cuba.) The combatant Robert Jordan and Maria have just made love in the heather. Shortly thereafter, we get these words from Hemingway, words much more polemic than is usual for him:
You have it now and that is all your whole life is; now. There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you will never get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.
We live in the eternal now—the present moment forever renewing itself. The past? It exists only as a present memory. The future? It exists only as a hope. Cherish this present moment. It is more than enough, even though it is so fleeting and ephemeral. Nevertheless, seize the moment—and live.
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Source: http://ianellis-jones.blogspot.com/2018/10/ernest-hemingway-and-art-of-mindful.html
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