Monday, August 16, 2010

Rameau’s Nephew

❝Rain or shine, it’s my habit, about five of an evening, to go for a stroll in the Palais-Royal. It’s me you see there, invariably alone, sitting on the d’Argenson bench, musing. I converse with myself about politics, love, taste, or philosophy. I give my mind license to wander wherever it fancies. I leave it completely free to pursue the first wise or foolish idea that it encounters, just as, on the Allée de Foy, you see our young rakes pursuing a flighty, smiling, sharp-eyed, snub-nosed little whore, abandoning this one to follow that one, trying them all but not settling on any. 
In my case, my thoughts are my whores.❞

--Denis Diderot
But we're getting better at simplifying things... maybe.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

This. Song.


Dunno really. Just one of those songs that comes around again and again. Haunting me. 

--- In a beautiful way.


In the Symposium, Socrates says:

❝Even during the period for which any living being is said to live and retain his identity. [Man] he is always becoming a new being and undergoing a process of loss and reparation, which affects not only his body, but his soul as well. No man's character, habits, opinions desires pleasures pains and fears remain always the same: new ones come into existence and old ones disappear.❞

Socrates often brought people to the realization that they were not the best they could be, and perhaps they did not know what they thought they did.

❝I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to or as strongly as for the best state of your soul, as I say to you: Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence brings about wealth and all the other public and private blessings for men.❞

Socrates truly believed that "the unexamined life is not worth living." To know your soul must be the prime focus of life, not just a superficial quest for possessions and wealth. He felt that people far too often forget what they should be doing and what they should be concerned with. By endeavoring to get in touch with the inner self, it becomes a necessity to clear away some of the forces that hamper our search for virtue and self-knowledge.

I think maybe he was the wisest because he knew that the search for virtue and truthfulness was in fact a journey within -- a journey to understanding yourself, your soul, and to making it as pure as possible. The journey doesn't require a thick rule book, rituals or reverence to deities unseen. It just requires a willingness to travel the road. Accept change and accept that as old fears, pleasures and pains disappear, new ones come into existence. Easier said than done. We're afraid of what lurks beneath the surface of the unknown. Perhaps nothing? (What can be scarier than nothing? Seriously.) Perhaps we subconsciously fear the truth, afraid we'll be crushed by the enormous responsibility of it's discovery.

At the mention of Socrates, what comes to mind first? Most likely "the good life", wisdom and justice. Virtues we should all strive for, but one thing is missing to make a most powerful combination. It is a virtue we must work hardest above all to possess: Bravery. Fear devalues and eventually obliterates the worth of our principles, it rocks the core of the mental foundation of our existence, of the reality we create. Facing the unknown, Socrates chose not to fear - we are given the same choice, if we dare take the first step:

"Know thy soul" "Know thyself"

Thursday, July 01, 2010

❝I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.❞  ~John Burroughs

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Do you make bad romantic choices?

❝ In the past, yes I most certainly have. Who hasn’t? Love won and love lost is part of the human experience. Show me someone who has never made a bad choice and I will show you someone who has never lived. You would think having an extremely strong sense of empathy would help in affairs of the heart, but without a solid foundation in self they only serve to perpetuate confusion. In my day-to-day life I often had trouble discerning energies and emotions which arose in myself from those of others. This was only magnified by intimate relationships. After a number of daunting experiences, I realized that I would have to fully illuminate my empathy or be destroyed by it. This led me on quite a difficult yet rewarding journey and having lived it I know I am stronger for it.

My advice to all who may find themselves inundated by empathy: Define your sovereign borders before you define yourself with another. Until you can, your journey must be a solitary one. Many of our greatest challenges are actually our greatest strengths in disguise. Once you realize this you are already on your way towards their actualization.

But back to the matter at hand, romance.

Romance is often at odds with logic, and sometimes even intuition. The trouble with romance is that we mistake the sways of passion for something we believe is love. However, Love does not make us insane, it instills a sanity and depth most of us travel our whole lives without ever knowing. The irony is that we are not missing some obscure puzzle piece, or that we have not yet found the right person.
Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror.❞
— Katie Byron

(via metaconscious)

I'm trying to work on myself and need affirmations that it's okay for me to do this alone. Everyone around me is in a relationship and there's this sort of unspoken pressure that I couldn't really be happy single. Perhaps a self imposed pressure. Love, love, love. It is truly a beautiful thing. What's not beautiful about it is the rejection, the loss, the heartache. I could live without those for awhile! Love itself is beautiful.

Recently, a cute boy recommended for me to read The Alchemist, a fable about life, passion and dreams. I had started it years ago, but got distracted with nothing in particular and never found the right moment to pick it up again till he reminded me. So I'm finishing it off now and quite pleased. It's a book that has gotten a lot of flack for being blunt and simple, for characters that lack depth and complexity, for the religious mambo-jambo mixed in, but at the heart and soul of this book lies much meaning. A life philosophy expressed in a fable, without restraint and subtlety you might find in a great literary work. But it's within this imperfect, simple writing that your thoughts are provoked and you find yourself delving into the chasms of secret hopes and dreams. I don't know, it works for me.

I like asking questions. It's an annoying habit of mine. Well, not annoying for me, but maybe for others. Asking questions of myself is so important, why wouldn't it be important to ask people/strangers/friends questions? So I ask myself today; what will I do with that feeling, that pulling and tugging in my heart? Will I drown out the voice of the passion I feel for something that might go against what others expect of Me? "Purpose is the place where your deep gladness meets the world's needs". What makes me glad? The world needs our gladness and our passion. I know it sounds cliché, but for someone like myself who has trouble separating my energies and emotions from others' - regularly taking deep, hard looks within my heart is something I need to always be reminded to do.

I'm going to go finish reading...

The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of betraying the other. --
The Alchemist

New Things

New book.
New movie.
New boots.
New tee.

Buhhhhhh

I am no writer. That 215800 challenge I have been attempting is BULLSHIT and has made me realize once again that I suck at most everything. Not writing because I haven't felt *inspired* about anything. What's up with me needing *inspiration* before I can do anything?? OH WELL. I'm not going to let it get me down. I guess I am just a person who relies on inspiration for everything.

LAME.

OH. WELL.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

1:07am

I have nothing to say at this moment.

Goodnight, internet.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Hope

❝I heed echos of your laughter in the corners of my mind
While I memorise each detail of your intricate design
In your hair there is a symphony
Your lips, a string quartet
They tell stories of a Neon Valley Street
Where we first met
now somewhere time pursues us
As we love in Technicolor
But I dwell in silence on your words
Which move me like none other
This time I shall be unafraid
And violence will not move me
this time we will relax
This time we will stay in our movie
I see beyond tomorrow
This life of strife and sorrow
My freedom calls and I must go. ❞ 
- Janelle Monae

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

"Can I get a makeover?!?", the blog begged.

The self-conscious, insecurity we had always suspected it possessed is now revealed.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals Finals

*zoink*