To be aware of that of which we are ignorant is dwelling with shadows. But to be unaware of that of which we are ignorant is deep darkness indeed.
Dana Bate
******************************
Hello to the person in Ile-de-France, Paris
*******************************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Sometimes darkness comes at noon,
and sometimes the light shines at midnight.
---------------------------------------------
This is the 1,825 edition of Vagabond Journeys. When I first began this journal I posted quotes from the wise and witty, without comments. But when people started to comment I decided to add a few thoughts of my own.
I have 112 pages of quotes, single spaced, small font, about 30 to 35 per page. They come mainly from my reading, books, magazines and newspapers, some come from other journalists and some are my own, (as in above). As I look back over them I realize that back in 2006 when I first started collecting these quotes, I thought some ideas were very clever and worth a lot of thought which I now regard as simple statements of fact that need no embellishment, such as "Worrying makes you cross the bridge before you come to it." (Harvey Mackey) A self-evidently apt analogy that needs no explanation or comment, I will gladly place it within the body of a journal entry one day to add some zest.
I try to avoid polemics, although the temptation to plunge in is great. But I find that the best political quotes are the humorous ones, like this one from Howard Zinn "If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates."
There are quotes that stroke my poetic self, and I enjoy learning from them. "I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame." (Yeats)
There are the esoteric and mystic authors that intrigue me and give me much to say. "I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming of being a man?" (Zhuangzi)
I, at last, have become ready to take on the big thinkers, like Friedrich Nietzsche, "Blessedness is not a promise, it has no strings attached; it is the ONLY reality - everything else is just a symbol used to speak about it."
The lesson for me from the past 6 years is that grappling with the thoughts of some of these thinkers has evolved my own thinking process, cleared some questions, placed larger and rangier issues on the table for me, made me more aware of that of which I am ignorant and doused me in a baptism of learning. Now I do what I hope everyone does or will do. I look for the light that shines at midnight.
Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
******************************
Showing posts with label Nietzsche. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nietzsche. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Free At Last
It's not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas.
Edwin Land
***********************"
"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah)
----------------------------------------
I awoke this morning with a reaction to some dream I had been having. I dont remember the dream but the feeling I had was how important freedom was to my life and to life in general.
Shortly after, I heard a meek chirping noise and again I discovered one of the very young finches inside my apartment. The poor creatures must have been in here all night, wondering where he was and where his buddies were. I opened the door and took him to it. He wasted no time accepting his freedom.
It may be that freedom is the most important motivating force of life. We begin our days by getting free of the womb. After that we face a seemingly endless parade of locks, blocks and obstructions to get through.
The paradox to life is that freedom isn't free. We pay a heavy price for it. But as Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "No price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself."
Life, for most of us, is a process of getting free of one encumbrance only to tie ourselves up with another one. Once we stop being babies, learn to walk and then to run, the world is a big adventure and we are free at last. And then "slam" the door closes and off we go to school. That form of imprisonment goes on for many years until we graduate and step out into the word, free at last. Until we get a job.
Feeling free is not the same thing as freedom. A false sense of security is more dangerous than insecurity. Back in the 40's and 50's, when I was growing up, a major ethic, in that post depression era, was to have a job. If you had a job you were secure. It was expected that you would stay at that job, working for that company the rest of your life until you retired and it was assumed that your job was secure. There was a lifetime commitment between the employer and the employee. With the rise of organized labor a man's salary, security and working conditions improved to the point where he could think about settling down to raise a family and maybe even owning a home.
It all seemed like the American Dream working itself out as the philosophers of 20th Century ideas had envisioned it. America was, after all, the land of the free. But the fact was freedom under those conditions was not attainable. An employer owned your job and therefore he owned a major part of your life. It was a false sense of security which seemed better than the desperate insecurity that had beleaguered the early 20th Century.
The 60's came and things began to unravel. Employers started replacing workers and workers started changing jobs. The work place was no longer the arena of freedom. Also, along came the skyrocketing cost of things like health care which meant that the simple job a man had was no long capable of taking care of the family he had begun. The husband's salary was not enough so the wife also had to go to work, meaning that holding the family together became an improvised affair. As the expenses and responsibilities piled up something was slowly disappearing from the mental environment. It was the sense of freedom. We were tied down to jobs, debts, family obligations and physical limitations.
We went looking for things to give us a sense of freedom. Vacations are a usual choice. Depending on a man's income he could take the family skiing in the Alps, or to a cottage on the beach or he could sit around in the living room, spending time with the kids, watching TV, resting and playing games. But wherever he went the vacation ended and he went back to the servitude of the job he never left.
He could be inventive, enterprising and manipulative, and rise in the ranks of wage earners, but whatever his specialty, profession or career he was still tethered to it.
Then came retirement when he thought he'll be free at last. But what he found was a whole new set of responsibilities and a life of commitments, because he is used to it.
The fact is that he lives his life according to theories he has inherited from the past, from his parents, teachers and society in general, hence he is bound to them. His first step toward freedom is to know that and not let those ideas control his life, as useful as some of them may be.
At some point, after all the slavery he's been through or put himself through he may realize that freedom is something that exists only in his thoughts. He's paid a heavy price for that realization, but at last he can begin to do the amazing thing of taking possession of himself. He's had the right all along to claim ownership. It doesn't matter who he works for or what he does, how big his family is or where he lives, who his friends and neighbors are or how much money he has. None of those things define him. He is a single entity, a unique idea in the vast universe of existence with total authority for being there. It took a long time, many struggles and a hefty price to find out that he has always been free.
DB
Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
*************************
SUMMER QUESTION
Summer is moving along, people.
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
15 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Edwin Land
***********************"
"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah)
----------------------------------------
I awoke this morning with a reaction to some dream I had been having. I dont remember the dream but the feeling I had was how important freedom was to my life and to life in general.
Shortly after, I heard a meek chirping noise and again I discovered one of the very young finches inside my apartment. The poor creatures must have been in here all night, wondering where he was and where his buddies were. I opened the door and took him to it. He wasted no time accepting his freedom.
It may be that freedom is the most important motivating force of life. We begin our days by getting free of the womb. After that we face a seemingly endless parade of locks, blocks and obstructions to get through.
The paradox to life is that freedom isn't free. We pay a heavy price for it. But as Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "No price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself."
Life, for most of us, is a process of getting free of one encumbrance only to tie ourselves up with another one. Once we stop being babies, learn to walk and then to run, the world is a big adventure and we are free at last. And then "slam" the door closes and off we go to school. That form of imprisonment goes on for many years until we graduate and step out into the word, free at last. Until we get a job.
Feeling free is not the same thing as freedom. A false sense of security is more dangerous than insecurity. Back in the 40's and 50's, when I was growing up, a major ethic, in that post depression era, was to have a job. If you had a job you were secure. It was expected that you would stay at that job, working for that company the rest of your life until you retired and it was assumed that your job was secure. There was a lifetime commitment between the employer and the employee. With the rise of organized labor a man's salary, security and working conditions improved to the point where he could think about settling down to raise a family and maybe even owning a home.
It all seemed like the American Dream working itself out as the philosophers of 20th Century ideas had envisioned it. America was, after all, the land of the free. But the fact was freedom under those conditions was not attainable. An employer owned your job and therefore he owned a major part of your life. It was a false sense of security which seemed better than the desperate insecurity that had beleaguered the early 20th Century.
The 60's came and things began to unravel. Employers started replacing workers and workers started changing jobs. The work place was no longer the arena of freedom. Also, along came the skyrocketing cost of things like health care which meant that the simple job a man had was no long capable of taking care of the family he had begun. The husband's salary was not enough so the wife also had to go to work, meaning that holding the family together became an improvised affair. As the expenses and responsibilities piled up something was slowly disappearing from the mental environment. It was the sense of freedom. We were tied down to jobs, debts, family obligations and physical limitations.
We went looking for things to give us a sense of freedom. Vacations are a usual choice. Depending on a man's income he could take the family skiing in the Alps, or to a cottage on the beach or he could sit around in the living room, spending time with the kids, watching TV, resting and playing games. But wherever he went the vacation ended and he went back to the servitude of the job he never left.
He could be inventive, enterprising and manipulative, and rise in the ranks of wage earners, but whatever his specialty, profession or career he was still tethered to it.
Then came retirement when he thought he'll be free at last. But what he found was a whole new set of responsibilities and a life of commitments, because he is used to it.
The fact is that he lives his life according to theories he has inherited from the past, from his parents, teachers and society in general, hence he is bound to them. His first step toward freedom is to know that and not let those ideas control his life, as useful as some of them may be.
At some point, after all the slavery he's been through or put himself through he may realize that freedom is something that exists only in his thoughts. He's paid a heavy price for that realization, but at last he can begin to do the amazing thing of taking possession of himself. He's had the right all along to claim ownership. It doesn't matter who he works for or what he does, how big his family is or where he lives, who his friends and neighbors are or how much money he has. None of those things define him. He is a single entity, a unique idea in the vast universe of existence with total authority for being there. It took a long time, many struggles and a hefty price to find out that he has always been free.
DB
Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
*************************
SUMMER QUESTION
Summer is moving along, people.
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
15 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Other Guy Is Wrong
Growth in wisdom may be exactly measured by decrease in bitterness.
Friedrich Nietzsche
************************
I am one of those who, with many others, has a respect for other people's firmly held beliefs as long as thy are positive, constructive and progressive, be they political, religious or philosophical. As a child I was influenced, as most youngsters are, by the traditional beliefs of the family I lived in. And in my case there was no discussion or disagreement allowed. It was the truth and that was that. A wise person once said "Respect those who seek the truth, beware of those who find it."
Some people's ideas are just plain stupid, but growing up and getting to know people of other beliefs, influences and traditions I was struck by how diverse and complex the world is. To live in harmony with people without losing my own sense of what I thought was right and true I had to develop a tolerance for others' opinions.
But then one day I read an essay for a radio program on ethics which challenged the idea of tolerance. It taught me that to tolerate an opposing idea of right thinking and behavior was to start from the basis of my own unchallenged convictions. The other fellow was wrong and therefore his opinions must be tolerated.
It's true that without tolerance arguments ensue. It's a shameful thing to witness one seeker for truth who is convinced he has found it defensively putting down another seeker for truth. And if they are both convinced they are right and try to convert each other the argument either becomes comical or it leads to war. And as Nietzsche points out where there is bitterness there is no wisdom.
As a result of reading that essay I began to stop thinking of myself as a tolerant person and went looking for something better. The better is to acknowledge that my opinions, beliefs and faith are mine based upon my early influences, my thinking, my research and my life experiences. To realize they are not going to go through any radical change as long as they are honestly held. To understand that the search for truth is an infinite, eternal process and that if another sincere seeker has a different path than mine his journey must be respected. The differences are far less important than the wisdom gained.
There used to be a Museum of Philosophy in New York. There was a computer there that asked you a whole set of questions about your beliefs and opinions. It wasn't a test; you weren't graded. But when you finished and pressed "enter" it gave you a list of a few philosophers who agreed with you. Now, whereas it's nice and cozy to have your own opinions reinforced by thinkers who are more articulate than you are, I was more interested in those who disagreed with me, so I started reading works by people who weren't on the list. And what happened? Behold, a few of them changed my mind about things. I gained some wisdom.
DB
--------------------------------
New Improved Weekend Puzzle
Straighten out these titles please.
AABIILRS
AAOTTW
ACEEGHNNOP
AEHNST
AEIJKKRVY
AGHINNOSTW
AIPRS
BDILNU
CHKLMOOST
DLNNOO
EHIIKLNS
EMOR
(dgoo cklu)
DB
*********************
Friedrich Nietzsche
************************
I am one of those who, with many others, has a respect for other people's firmly held beliefs as long as thy are positive, constructive and progressive, be they political, religious or philosophical. As a child I was influenced, as most youngsters are, by the traditional beliefs of the family I lived in. And in my case there was no discussion or disagreement allowed. It was the truth and that was that. A wise person once said "Respect those who seek the truth, beware of those who find it."
Some people's ideas are just plain stupid, but growing up and getting to know people of other beliefs, influences and traditions I was struck by how diverse and complex the world is. To live in harmony with people without losing my own sense of what I thought was right and true I had to develop a tolerance for others' opinions.
But then one day I read an essay for a radio program on ethics which challenged the idea of tolerance. It taught me that to tolerate an opposing idea of right thinking and behavior was to start from the basis of my own unchallenged convictions. The other fellow was wrong and therefore his opinions must be tolerated.
It's true that without tolerance arguments ensue. It's a shameful thing to witness one seeker for truth who is convinced he has found it defensively putting down another seeker for truth. And if they are both convinced they are right and try to convert each other the argument either becomes comical or it leads to war. And as Nietzsche points out where there is bitterness there is no wisdom.
As a result of reading that essay I began to stop thinking of myself as a tolerant person and went looking for something better. The better is to acknowledge that my opinions, beliefs and faith are mine based upon my early influences, my thinking, my research and my life experiences. To realize they are not going to go through any radical change as long as they are honestly held. To understand that the search for truth is an infinite, eternal process and that if another sincere seeker has a different path than mine his journey must be respected. The differences are far less important than the wisdom gained.
There used to be a Museum of Philosophy in New York. There was a computer there that asked you a whole set of questions about your beliefs and opinions. It wasn't a test; you weren't graded. But when you finished and pressed "enter" it gave you a list of a few philosophers who agreed with you. Now, whereas it's nice and cozy to have your own opinions reinforced by thinkers who are more articulate than you are, I was more interested in those who disagreed with me, so I started reading works by people who weren't on the list. And what happened? Behold, a few of them changed my mind about things. I gained some wisdom.
DB
--------------------------------
New Improved Weekend Puzzle
Straighten out these titles please.
AABIILRS
AAOTTW
ACEEGHNNOP
AEHNST
AEIJKKRVY
AGHINNOSTW
AIPRS
BDILNU
CHKLMOOST
DLNNOO
EHIIKLNS
EMOR
(dgoo cklu)
DB
*********************
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Give and Return
Every gift, though it be small, is in reality great, if given with affection.
Pindar
+++++++++++++++++++
For my birthday last March one of my journal friends (you know who you are) sent me the kind and generous gift of the CD on which Susan Boyle sings her songs. I listened to it again this morning. Many of her songs are about lost love and being alone. I always shed a tear when I hear it. It touches me. Many of the messages are so relevant to my life.
"How can I not be grateful for my whole life?" wrote Nietzsche. And we should indeed be grateful for the life we have been given and the experiences we have had in the living of it. But there are also the regrets for the life we did not have, the dreams that were never fulfilled, the hopes that were dashed and the pain we have found and given out to others.
From the deep darkness of self we can find the gifts of wisdom, clearness and love to share with those who can receive them. The gift of ourselves is the gift from the hollow well of life, hollow but filled with jewels.
From my own shattering disappointment in myself I thought the moments of truth I could give as an artist on the stage would heal my regrets. I came to find out even better the healing took place in the hearts of people who saw me and heard me speak. Those were the simple gifts I could give, and they did come back to me sometimes.
There is one experience I will never forget. We were touring a production of "Orphans" to homeless shelters, half way houses, drug rehabilitation centers and hospitals in New York City. I played the role of an older man straightening out the lives of two aimless youngsters. We played a large homeless shelter on the upper West Side of Manhattan. The audience was very small, only about 20 guys, and after the performance we took a bow. When I looked up there was a tall, black man. 60 to 70 years old, with tears coming down his cheeks. He just took my hand in both of his and said "Thank you."
A single performance in the corner of a recreation room, with no special lights, a few pieces of furniture and yet something I did went right to the center of that man's life.
Did I clean out some regret, did I answer a life long question, did I solve a burdensome mystery, did I enable him to forgive? I will never know what effect it had on him beyond that moment but it was surely a gift given and returned with affection.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
************************
You can now find me on Twitter http://twitter.com/dana_bate
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Come on folks.
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 5 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Pindar
+++++++++++++++++++
For my birthday last March one of my journal friends (you know who you are) sent me the kind and generous gift of the CD on which Susan Boyle sings her songs. I listened to it again this morning. Many of her songs are about lost love and being alone. I always shed a tear when I hear it. It touches me. Many of the messages are so relevant to my life.
"How can I not be grateful for my whole life?" wrote Nietzsche. And we should indeed be grateful for the life we have been given and the experiences we have had in the living of it. But there are also the regrets for the life we did not have, the dreams that were never fulfilled, the hopes that were dashed and the pain we have found and given out to others.
From the deep darkness of self we can find the gifts of wisdom, clearness and love to share with those who can receive them. The gift of ourselves is the gift from the hollow well of life, hollow but filled with jewels.
From my own shattering disappointment in myself I thought the moments of truth I could give as an artist on the stage would heal my regrets. I came to find out even better the healing took place in the hearts of people who saw me and heard me speak. Those were the simple gifts I could give, and they did come back to me sometimes.
There is one experience I will never forget. We were touring a production of "Orphans" to homeless shelters, half way houses, drug rehabilitation centers and hospitals in New York City. I played the role of an older man straightening out the lives of two aimless youngsters. We played a large homeless shelter on the upper West Side of Manhattan. The audience was very small, only about 20 guys, and after the performance we took a bow. When I looked up there was a tall, black man. 60 to 70 years old, with tears coming down his cheeks. He just took my hand in both of his and said "Thank you."
A single performance in the corner of a recreation room, with no special lights, a few pieces of furniture and yet something I did went right to the center of that man's life.
Did I clean out some regret, did I answer a life long question, did I solve a burdensome mystery, did I enable him to forgive? I will never know what effect it had on him beyond that moment but it was surely a gift given and returned with affection.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
************************
You can now find me on Twitter http://twitter.com/dana_bate
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Come on folks.
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 5 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Monday, May 31, 2010
Laugh It Up
We should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
Nietzsche
*******************
In Eugene O'Neill's play "Long Days Journey Into Night" James Tyrone wants to know what his young son Edmund is laughing about and he says he's laughing at life because it's so funny.
Ancient Greek theatre was a very vibrant, powerful and important one. There would be a festival at which four plays were presented all by the same author. The plays were based on ancient Greek history or legend. It often took a year to prepare them. The acting and the writing needed to be spectacular to hold a Greek audience for that length of time, and they were. Many of those plays still exist and the few famous ones, Oedipus the King, Hecuba, Medea, sometimes show up in regional theatres and Off-Broadway.
Though the plays took their plots from stories everyone knew the themes were relevant to life and portrayed the tragedies and dramas of human existence. While the first three plays in the festival were tragedies and high dramas the fourth play was a comedy. It was a parody, a satire on the same topic as the first three plays. After the audience had been put through the thunder dramas of life they were allowed to laugh about it.
Many of those ancient plays have been lost. But, and here a classical scholar, if there is one reading this, can inform me further if I'm mistaken, as far as I know only one of those final satires still exists: The Cyclops by Euripides, based on the Ulysses story.
There is a great lesson here. There isn't anything in life, no matter how dramatic, tragic or terrifying it may be that doesn't deserve to be laughed at. My developed and cherished sense of humor allows me to poke fun at everything about life, except other people. People change, life doesn't. To make fun of people is a bad way to get a laugh. I don't listen to people like Limbaugh, Leno and Beck. They take delight in putting other people down by scorning them and trying to make me laugh at them. It's cheap. low level. decadent humor and a total waste of my time.
DB
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
14 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Nietzsche
*******************
In Eugene O'Neill's play "Long Days Journey Into Night" James Tyrone wants to know what his young son Edmund is laughing about and he says he's laughing at life because it's so funny.
Ancient Greek theatre was a very vibrant, powerful and important one. There would be a festival at which four plays were presented all by the same author. The plays were based on ancient Greek history or legend. It often took a year to prepare them. The acting and the writing needed to be spectacular to hold a Greek audience for that length of time, and they were. Many of those plays still exist and the few famous ones, Oedipus the King, Hecuba, Medea, sometimes show up in regional theatres and Off-Broadway.
Though the plays took their plots from stories everyone knew the themes were relevant to life and portrayed the tragedies and dramas of human existence. While the first three plays in the festival were tragedies and high dramas the fourth play was a comedy. It was a parody, a satire on the same topic as the first three plays. After the audience had been put through the thunder dramas of life they were allowed to laugh about it.
Many of those ancient plays have been lost. But, and here a classical scholar, if there is one reading this, can inform me further if I'm mistaken, as far as I know only one of those final satires still exists: The Cyclops by Euripides, based on the Ulysses story.
There is a great lesson here. There isn't anything in life, no matter how dramatic, tragic or terrifying it may be that doesn't deserve to be laughed at. My developed and cherished sense of humor allows me to poke fun at everything about life, except other people. People change, life doesn't. To make fun of people is a bad way to get a laugh. I don't listen to people like Limbaugh, Leno and Beck. They take delight in putting other people down by scorning them and trying to make me laugh at them. It's cheap. low level. decadent humor and a total waste of my time.
DB
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
14 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Get On With It
Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.
Robert Kennedy
****************
I don't know why I keep going, except that there's a sign at the entrance to my brain which reads "Never Give Up."
I have lost so much of myself: my health, my career, my friends, my family. I live in a town where no one knows me and no one seems to want to. I stagger when I walk and I have to walk because I have no car. I don't get enough to eat, I can only eat what I don't have to chew, and that's not much. I don't feel fear these days, just discouragement and futility.
I did a major role in "A Delicate Balance" by Edward Albee. The director noted that at the of the play the night was over, the morning sun promised a new day, a cleansing of fears and a beginning. The leading actor in the play disagreed and said that it was only a reaffirmation of all things that were wrong, another day to face the same old troubles over again. I can't tell you how much I disagreed with that actor. He went on to become the director of that theatre and two years later it closed.
I wish I had a comfortable chair. I used to have one, a big soft easy chair, but when I moved up to the third floor it didn't fit through either of the doors so I had to give it up. I have two chairs of the fold out, aluminum, plastic lawn and beach variety. I have to prop them up with hard pillows and towels to reach the keyboard. It's very uncomfortable. I have a bed which I bought from the Salvation Army for $10. If I need to rest I sit on that.
Edward Albee was in many ways a product of the ancient Greek playwrights. The Greek dramas were almost exclusively tragedies, but they were not pessimistic. The Greeks taught us catharsis, a cleansing, the painful effects of revenge and the healing of it, purification. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote about: "how the Greeks put pessimism behind them, - how they overcame it...Tragedy in particular proves that the Greeks were not pessimists." It was that Dionysian spirit of forward looking, forward living that I came to believe was what my work as an actor was providing.
I wish I had a bath tub. I had one in New York. It wasn't big but it was sufficient to be a blessing for me. I haven't had one since I moved here.
I wish I could afford a nice big bottle of Motts apple juice.
That actor was wrong. Why go on the stage and portray negativism? Why throw fog in the face of the morning sun? The nihilist sees mud, the biologist sees life developing and growing.
I mailed the rent check today. It's a long, painful walk because the post office took away the mail boxes that were near me. Then I went to the market. I avoided buying the eggs and the beans, They can wait until Wednesday.
Like a good landscape painter, my director friend always knew where the light source was coming from, in every scene of every play. Without the light source there are no shadows. That actor only wanted to play in the fog and the mud.
I wish I had a good Ring, a Solti, Levine or Furtwangler Ring. But such as thing would cost hundreds. Maybe some day.
One good thing about living alone is that whenever I come home every one here is glad to see me. I have no audience now except the grinning moon to watch me. So I grin back, take my solo bow in the dark and silent night and wait for the morning sun so I can get on with life.
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
Only 7 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Robert Kennedy
****************
I don't know why I keep going, except that there's a sign at the entrance to my brain which reads "Never Give Up."
I have lost so much of myself: my health, my career, my friends, my family. I live in a town where no one knows me and no one seems to want to. I stagger when I walk and I have to walk because I have no car. I don't get enough to eat, I can only eat what I don't have to chew, and that's not much. I don't feel fear these days, just discouragement and futility.
I did a major role in "A Delicate Balance" by Edward Albee. The director noted that at the of the play the night was over, the morning sun promised a new day, a cleansing of fears and a beginning. The leading actor in the play disagreed and said that it was only a reaffirmation of all things that were wrong, another day to face the same old troubles over again. I can't tell you how much I disagreed with that actor. He went on to become the director of that theatre and two years later it closed.
I wish I had a comfortable chair. I used to have one, a big soft easy chair, but when I moved up to the third floor it didn't fit through either of the doors so I had to give it up. I have two chairs of the fold out, aluminum, plastic lawn and beach variety. I have to prop them up with hard pillows and towels to reach the keyboard. It's very uncomfortable. I have a bed which I bought from the Salvation Army for $10. If I need to rest I sit on that.
Edward Albee was in many ways a product of the ancient Greek playwrights. The Greek dramas were almost exclusively tragedies, but they were not pessimistic. The Greeks taught us catharsis, a cleansing, the painful effects of revenge and the healing of it, purification. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote about: "how the Greeks put pessimism behind them, - how they overcame it...Tragedy in particular proves that the Greeks were not pessimists." It was that Dionysian spirit of forward looking, forward living that I came to believe was what my work as an actor was providing.
I wish I had a bath tub. I had one in New York. It wasn't big but it was sufficient to be a blessing for me. I haven't had one since I moved here.
I wish I could afford a nice big bottle of Motts apple juice.
That actor was wrong. Why go on the stage and portray negativism? Why throw fog in the face of the morning sun? The nihilist sees mud, the biologist sees life developing and growing.
I mailed the rent check today. It's a long, painful walk because the post office took away the mail boxes that were near me. Then I went to the market. I avoided buying the eggs and the beans, They can wait until Wednesday.
Like a good landscape painter, my director friend always knew where the light source was coming from, in every scene of every play. Without the light source there are no shadows. That actor only wanted to play in the fog and the mud.
I wish I had a good Ring, a Solti, Levine or Furtwangler Ring. But such as thing would cost hundreds. Maybe some day.
One good thing about living alone is that whenever I come home every one here is glad to see me. I have no audience now except the grinning moon to watch me. So I grin back, take my solo bow in the dark and silent night and wait for the morning sun so I can get on with life.
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
Only 7 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Monday, February 22, 2010
Solving The Riddle
actingThe practice of life is the only thing that can make you feel "divine," "blessed," "evangelic."
Nietzsche
****************
See results of the weekend contest below.
******************
Let's face it friends, nobody knows what they're doing. There is no such thing as an authority on life. Just when you think you've got it figured out it changes, or some new unexpected element emerges out of the fog, or you stumble over a rock you didn't see. We are all total amateurs when it comes to life. Life is an unsolvable riddle, an eternal enigma, a jig saw puzzle with an infinite number of pieces. We spend our whole lives trying to discover what our whole lives are all about. How can one not have a sense of humor?
Here we are born with a certain set of abilities which we then have to learn to develop. As helpless infants we soon learn that screaming in rage over our own limitations usually brings results from the big people who serve us. The clever and wily child learns to turn that rage into a more coercive maneuver. Affections grow along with likes and dislikes and slowly a character is formed. After a few years of growing we realize that we are much wiser than the big people. Finally we step out into the world at large and discover that we are not as wise as we thought we were, so we start learning things about life. And that "coming of age" is a process that never ends even though we imagined, in our innocence, that one day it would.
What's really going on, undercover, is a process of coming to understand ourselves. We think. foolishly, that we know ourselves until a major change takes place, a tragedy (heaven forbid) or, better but just as challenging, we fall in love. Oops! What is that? Not something we were prepared for.
When I was leaning how to be an actor I, at first, thought I knew how to do it. But gradually I became aware of the fact that there was a lot I didn't know. My teacher/mentor told me to put in practice what I knew and the rest would eventually follow. He was right. By the time I retired from the stage 45 years later I realized I would never know it all. No one could.
I was a performing artist. That was my career. But whether you're an actor like me, a boxer like Mark, a painter like Ernie, a nurse like George, a philosopher like
Friedrich, a teacher, a wife and mother, a career is a metaphor for life. And as we make our pilgrimage and leave our echoes in the hallways of history what are we really doing but reaffirming life. We are practicing what we know, hoping for more wisdom to follow and putting it into practice when it does. And that's where the blessedness comes from.
I'm still learning, discovering, practicing, but in the long walk I guess the answer is one that I have come to many years later than other men have. It is the living of life every day, with conscious commitment, enthusiasm, expectation, appreciation, gratitude and a sense of humor. And that is the only answer to the riddle, as far as I know.
DB - The Vagabond
Nietzsche
****************
See results of the weekend contest below.
******************
Let's face it friends, nobody knows what they're doing. There is no such thing as an authority on life. Just when you think you've got it figured out it changes, or some new unexpected element emerges out of the fog, or you stumble over a rock you didn't see. We are all total amateurs when it comes to life. Life is an unsolvable riddle, an eternal enigma, a jig saw puzzle with an infinite number of pieces. We spend our whole lives trying to discover what our whole lives are all about. How can one not have a sense of humor?
Here we are born with a certain set of abilities which we then have to learn to develop. As helpless infants we soon learn that screaming in rage over our own limitations usually brings results from the big people who serve us. The clever and wily child learns to turn that rage into a more coercive maneuver. Affections grow along with likes and dislikes and slowly a character is formed. After a few years of growing we realize that we are much wiser than the big people. Finally we step out into the world at large and discover that we are not as wise as we thought we were, so we start learning things about life. And that "coming of age" is a process that never ends even though we imagined, in our innocence, that one day it would.
What's really going on, undercover, is a process of coming to understand ourselves. We think. foolishly, that we know ourselves until a major change takes place, a tragedy (heaven forbid) or, better but just as challenging, we fall in love. Oops! What is that? Not something we were prepared for.
When I was leaning how to be an actor I, at first, thought I knew how to do it. But gradually I became aware of the fact that there was a lot I didn't know. My teacher/mentor told me to put in practice what I knew and the rest would eventually follow. He was right. By the time I retired from the stage 45 years later I realized I would never know it all. No one could.
I was a performing artist. That was my career. But whether you're an actor like me, a boxer like Mark, a painter like Ernie, a nurse like George, a philosopher like
Friedrich, a teacher, a wife and mother, a career is a metaphor for life. And as we make our pilgrimage and leave our echoes in the hallways of history what are we really doing but reaffirming life. We are practicing what we know, hoping for more wisdom to follow and putting it into practice when it does. And that's where the blessedness comes from.
I'm still learning, discovering, practicing, but in the long walk I guess the answer is one that I have come to many years later than other men have. It is the living of life every day, with conscious commitment, enthusiasm, expectation, appreciation, gratitude and a sense of humor. And that is the only answer to the riddle, as far as I know.
DB - The Vagabond
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A View From The Attic
We build our nest on the tree called "future," eagles will bring meals in their beaks to us solitary ones.
Friedrich Nietzsche
*********************
What is it to be a solitary one? On the simplest terms it means to travel alone on the road, to embark by oneself into the experiences of life, to be an ambassador-at-large in strange and foreign lands.
I have no comfortable chair in my apartment. I used to have one. But when I was moving from the second floor to the third floor years ago, someone stole it. So without it I don't sit back, relax and dwell in my memories. I have very little time for that. Most of them aren't so good anyway and I choose not to think about them. I have no children around me to take care of my old age. I have no grandchildren on my lap. I have no dog giving me unconditional love. I have no cat to observe my foolish human ways. No one is here demanding food and love, in that order.
But there is a broader, better aspect to the solitary life. And that is about the future. The future is what I choose to think about. Solitary senior citizenship doesn't depress me. I look forward every day to the arrival of the eagles. I can see how much the future affects the past.
I don't like wearing clothes. I feel slightly claustrophobic when I'm dressed. That I don't have to be dressed is another benefit of the solitary life. Pure ideas in their natural state are in the beaks of the eagles. Opinions are ideas dressed up in some fancy, fashionable outfits. The eagles, past and present, strip away the opinions and give me the bare ideas.
My grandmother, when in her 80's, would habitually watch the TV news everyday. She wanted to know what was going on in the world she could no longer participate in or hove any influence over. I understand her. When you have lived many decades you have a greater perspective about things. That perspective gives you the ability to better predict what is going to happen and to understand what is happening as you watch it unfold. In some ways it is a reaffirmation of your own wisdom. I think my grandmother was content watching history being made and I respect her for that.
But that doesn't content me. Somewhere along the journey, when I first started contemplating building my mental nest, I knew that although I was interested in the what of things, I was more interested in knowing the why. To my friends I appeared, and still do, I guess, obsessive, idiosyncratic and paradoxical.
It all began with art, specifically music. How could those sounds create such feelings and impressions in me? What was in the harmony, counterpoint and rhythm, the melodies and tonal structures that produced such results? So I started on a life long study of music. That was followed by theatre and a life as an actor, then relooking at the great paintings of the world. Not as a casual or obligatory observer, but from my aery nest in the tree top.
When my first marriage crumbled I lived alone and slept in the basement of my house until I could figure things out. Now I live alone in the attic. I'm still figuring, but the view is nicer.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
I'm getting a lot of interesting mangled cliches so I'm leaving the quiz up for another day.
"A stitch in time is worth two in the bush."
Your assignment is to take two or more grand old sayings, cliches, sage saws or famous quotes and cobble (clobber) them together to make a new and wiser adage or utter nonsense, as in the above.
Enter as often as you wish. The decision of the ornery, biased judge is final. Actually if this keeps up I may need some help judging. Any volunteers?
Good luck.
DB
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Friedrich Nietzsche
*********************
What is it to be a solitary one? On the simplest terms it means to travel alone on the road, to embark by oneself into the experiences of life, to be an ambassador-at-large in strange and foreign lands.
I have no comfortable chair in my apartment. I used to have one. But when I was moving from the second floor to the third floor years ago, someone stole it. So without it I don't sit back, relax and dwell in my memories. I have very little time for that. Most of them aren't so good anyway and I choose not to think about them. I have no children around me to take care of my old age. I have no grandchildren on my lap. I have no dog giving me unconditional love. I have no cat to observe my foolish human ways. No one is here demanding food and love, in that order.
But there is a broader, better aspect to the solitary life. And that is about the future. The future is what I choose to think about. Solitary senior citizenship doesn't depress me. I look forward every day to the arrival of the eagles. I can see how much the future affects the past.
I don't like wearing clothes. I feel slightly claustrophobic when I'm dressed. That I don't have to be dressed is another benefit of the solitary life. Pure ideas in their natural state are in the beaks of the eagles. Opinions are ideas dressed up in some fancy, fashionable outfits. The eagles, past and present, strip away the opinions and give me the bare ideas.
My grandmother, when in her 80's, would habitually watch the TV news everyday. She wanted to know what was going on in the world she could no longer participate in or hove any influence over. I understand her. When you have lived many decades you have a greater perspective about things. That perspective gives you the ability to better predict what is going to happen and to understand what is happening as you watch it unfold. In some ways it is a reaffirmation of your own wisdom. I think my grandmother was content watching history being made and I respect her for that.
But that doesn't content me. Somewhere along the journey, when I first started contemplating building my mental nest, I knew that although I was interested in the what of things, I was more interested in knowing the why. To my friends I appeared, and still do, I guess, obsessive, idiosyncratic and paradoxical.
It all began with art, specifically music. How could those sounds create such feelings and impressions in me? What was in the harmony, counterpoint and rhythm, the melodies and tonal structures that produced such results? So I started on a life long study of music. That was followed by theatre and a life as an actor, then relooking at the great paintings of the world. Not as a casual or obligatory observer, but from my aery nest in the tree top.
When my first marriage crumbled I lived alone and slept in the basement of my house until I could figure things out. Now I live alone in the attic. I'm still figuring, but the view is nicer.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
I'm getting a lot of interesting mangled cliches so I'm leaving the quiz up for another day.
"A stitch in time is worth two in the bush."
Your assignment is to take two or more grand old sayings, cliches, sage saws or famous quotes and cobble (clobber) them together to make a new and wiser adage or utter nonsense, as in the above.
Enter as often as you wish. The decision of the ornery, biased judge is final. Actually if this keeps up I may need some help judging. Any volunteers?
Good luck.
DB
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Inventing Virtue
A virtue needs to be our own invention, our own most personal need and self-defense: in any other sense,a virtue is just dangerous.
Nietzsche
****************
For many hundreds of years philosophers have been trying to define virtue, to describe it and to answer the question "What is the virtuous life?" The arguments raged on over issues of war and peach, social and anti-social behavior, religious and nonreligious issues. As time went by revolutions took place, common people gained the courage to claim their rights. Those rights were subsequently squashed by the aristocracy. Revolutions were put down and martyrs of change were hung or burned and the whole process began again.
But the emergence of the common man as a strong, important element of the world is inevitable and that emergence is still going on. Modern day tyrants may not be kings and dictators, but they do exist in some area of too much power. This nation doesn't have a ruling class, but it definitely has one that thinks it is. And they show up in strange places. Ideologies masquerade as natural law and opinions as truth. Most of humanity is held to a standard of behavior by some system of thinking which may or may not be viruous.
The problem becomes confused when we are faced with the possibility of doing things we would never do according to our assumed code of conduct. "Thou shalt not kill." Is there ever a time when killing is a virtue? Ask the soldier in mortal combat with the enemy. "Thou shalt not steal." Is there ever a time when stealing is a virtue? Robin Hood thought so. Most of the human race is being perpetually plundered by some of the rich and powerful. Is it a virtue, for the sake of our fellow humans, to try to get it back, even by theft? Can certain crimes be justified by the name of virtue?
Most thinking people consider a virtuous life one of compassion, reason, respect, sociability, honesty, community, courage, conscientiousness, duty, order, righteousness and a long line of other qualities that go to make up a good person. But we all slip up on certain things. We're basically good but....
There are some humans, barely human, for whom those words have no meaning. Even the idea of virtue itself is a totally foreign concept that does not ever enter their thinking. Those are the true killers, torturers and thieves of the world. When faced as we are daily with the good, the sometimes good and the evil, what do we do?
There are times when any agreed upon ethic does not effectively apply. As a result I've spent many hours trying to come up with a plan of ethical behavior that can cover every situation I face. I often thought I was definitely doing the right thing and ended up suffering and having regrets about it. That caused me to question my own sense of right and wrong and discard some earnestly held beliefs I had been taught. Then I looked behind the veil and found that what I had assumed were true facts about virtue were the problem. What is a virtue to one man is a vice to another. Not only that but what is virtuous under one circumstance is vicious under another. Given the limited and delayed resources how do the doctors in Haiti decide who lives and who dies? Is suicide, assisted or otherwise, a virtuous option for one living in perpetual agony with no hope of release or for someone sentenced to be executed by some unspeakable means as is practiced in some countries? Is it ever virtuous to torture a prisoner of war to extract information or an animal in a medical lab to obtain scientific knowledge? Is it ever permissible to take someone's property away from him? Is the pursuit of pleasure a virtue? If so and you can justify the actions as stated above, what about the man who kills, tortures and robs for the joy of it? What happens if you rebel against doing something you've been ordered to do that you know is wrong? How do you live with the punishment of refusing to do it, or how do you live the with regret if you do it?
Governments are passing and instituting laws all the time to influence and control human behavior and doing it under the assumption of virtue. And why should there be laws to prevent one group from doing what another group considers wrong. I think one of the worst vices is trying to force your own morality on someone else.
With the rise of the common man comes the freedom of individual choice. People can think for themselves, even if many don't., Nietzsche was very concerned with getting people to think for themselves. He knew that virtue did not come from religion, laws or doing what others do just because they do it.
In this confusing life it is difficult, near impassible, to define virtue. It is easier to define what it is not. In the long run it is up to the individual to examine his conscience, his heart, his intuition and his reason and decide for himself what is right, what is wrong, choose the right and stick with it. That's as near as anyone can come to a virtuous life. At the end, can I be pleased and satisfied with myself for how I lived?
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
Nietzsche
****************
For many hundreds of years philosophers have been trying to define virtue, to describe it and to answer the question "What is the virtuous life?" The arguments raged on over issues of war and peach, social and anti-social behavior, religious and nonreligious issues. As time went by revolutions took place, common people gained the courage to claim their rights. Those rights were subsequently squashed by the aristocracy. Revolutions were put down and martyrs of change were hung or burned and the whole process began again.
But the emergence of the common man as a strong, important element of the world is inevitable and that emergence is still going on. Modern day tyrants may not be kings and dictators, but they do exist in some area of too much power. This nation doesn't have a ruling class, but it definitely has one that thinks it is. And they show up in strange places. Ideologies masquerade as natural law and opinions as truth. Most of humanity is held to a standard of behavior by some system of thinking which may or may not be viruous.
The problem becomes confused when we are faced with the possibility of doing things we would never do according to our assumed code of conduct. "Thou shalt not kill." Is there ever a time when killing is a virtue? Ask the soldier in mortal combat with the enemy. "Thou shalt not steal." Is there ever a time when stealing is a virtue? Robin Hood thought so. Most of the human race is being perpetually plundered by some of the rich and powerful. Is it a virtue, for the sake of our fellow humans, to try to get it back, even by theft? Can certain crimes be justified by the name of virtue?
Most thinking people consider a virtuous life one of compassion, reason, respect, sociability, honesty, community, courage, conscientiousness, duty, order, righteousness and a long line of other qualities that go to make up a good person. But we all slip up on certain things. We're basically good but....
There are some humans, barely human, for whom those words have no meaning. Even the idea of virtue itself is a totally foreign concept that does not ever enter their thinking. Those are the true killers, torturers and thieves of the world. When faced as we are daily with the good, the sometimes good and the evil, what do we do?
There are times when any agreed upon ethic does not effectively apply. As a result I've spent many hours trying to come up with a plan of ethical behavior that can cover every situation I face. I often thought I was definitely doing the right thing and ended up suffering and having regrets about it. That caused me to question my own sense of right and wrong and discard some earnestly held beliefs I had been taught. Then I looked behind the veil and found that what I had assumed were true facts about virtue were the problem. What is a virtue to one man is a vice to another. Not only that but what is virtuous under one circumstance is vicious under another. Given the limited and delayed resources how do the doctors in Haiti decide who lives and who dies? Is suicide, assisted or otherwise, a virtuous option for one living in perpetual agony with no hope of release or for someone sentenced to be executed by some unspeakable means as is practiced in some countries? Is it ever virtuous to torture a prisoner of war to extract information or an animal in a medical lab to obtain scientific knowledge? Is it ever permissible to take someone's property away from him? Is the pursuit of pleasure a virtue? If so and you can justify the actions as stated above, what about the man who kills, tortures and robs for the joy of it? What happens if you rebel against doing something you've been ordered to do that you know is wrong? How do you live with the punishment of refusing to do it, or how do you live the with regret if you do it?
Governments are passing and instituting laws all the time to influence and control human behavior and doing it under the assumption of virtue. And why should there be laws to prevent one group from doing what another group considers wrong. I think one of the worst vices is trying to force your own morality on someone else.
With the rise of the common man comes the freedom of individual choice. People can think for themselves, even if many don't., Nietzsche was very concerned with getting people to think for themselves. He knew that virtue did not come from religion, laws or doing what others do just because they do it.
In this confusing life it is difficult, near impassible, to define virtue. It is easier to define what it is not. In the long run it is up to the individual to examine his conscience, his heart, his intuition and his reason and decide for himself what is right, what is wrong, choose the right and stick with it. That's as near as anyone can come to a virtuous life. At the end, can I be pleased and satisfied with myself for how I lived?
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
Monday, March 23, 2009
Nurtured Nonsense 3/23/09
Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him.
Nietzsche
***************
Good spring day to you.
-------------------------
Check below for the answers to the WINTER QUIZ. You'll find them fascinating.
____________________________________________________________
A former colleague of mine, Gregg, used to refer to some people as vacuum cleaner brains, going around sucking up all the scrappy, dusty thinking that is lying around and not paying any attention to right, wrong or value.
It is indeed a woeful state of affairs for the human race that so many people are willing to take what comes along as truth without really thinking about it. Furthermore, it often happens, too often in fact, that the same people will convince themselves that the garbage that exists in their minds are they're own thoughts and ideas. But worst of all, and a product of that kind of lazy mentality, is the fact that those same people won't do any mental planting of their own. Mental mimicry is the rule.
Along with life we have been given the wonderful gift of human consciousness, the matchless ability to observe, ponder, compare, evaluate, reason and imagine. Why do people refuse to use it? Who turned out the lights?
We are faced daily with so many images, expressions, beliefs and contradictions it is very perplexing for people to sift through everything and find something to believe in, so they would rather have some simplistic doctrine to hold onto like a stick of wood in a flood and not bother their busy little heads about figuring anything our for themselves. Ask the doctor, ask the pastor, ask the mechanic. Or find out what everyone else is thinking. A school of fish is a very interesting thing to see as it swims and turns like one creature. Until it swims into a net. A flock of birds is a fascinating thing also until it flies into an airplane.
One of my favorite wise cracks comes from Isaac Bashevis Singer who, when asked if he believed in free will, said "We have to believe in free will, we have no choice." We have no choice because we have been given the ability and right to it. Furthermore, I think we have the obligation.
A good philosopher doesn't tell me what to think. He tells me what he thinks and then asks me to think for myself, So does a good teacher, a good pastor and a good politician.
You wouldn't want people to move their excess, dirty furniture into your home, so don't let someone plant their ideas in your mental soil. Exercise your natural right to pull up the weeds of nonsense and plant only what you want to see blossom.
Vagabond Journeys
--------------------
Today's assignment:
Watch spring come,
**************************
Nietzsche
***************
Good spring day to you.
-------------------------
Check below for the answers to the WINTER QUIZ. You'll find them fascinating.
____________________________________________________________
A former colleague of mine, Gregg, used to refer to some people as vacuum cleaner brains, going around sucking up all the scrappy, dusty thinking that is lying around and not paying any attention to right, wrong or value.
It is indeed a woeful state of affairs for the human race that so many people are willing to take what comes along as truth without really thinking about it. Furthermore, it often happens, too often in fact, that the same people will convince themselves that the garbage that exists in their minds are they're own thoughts and ideas. But worst of all, and a product of that kind of lazy mentality, is the fact that those same people won't do any mental planting of their own. Mental mimicry is the rule.
Along with life we have been given the wonderful gift of human consciousness, the matchless ability to observe, ponder, compare, evaluate, reason and imagine. Why do people refuse to use it? Who turned out the lights?
We are faced daily with so many images, expressions, beliefs and contradictions it is very perplexing for people to sift through everything and find something to believe in, so they would rather have some simplistic doctrine to hold onto like a stick of wood in a flood and not bother their busy little heads about figuring anything our for themselves. Ask the doctor, ask the pastor, ask the mechanic. Or find out what everyone else is thinking. A school of fish is a very interesting thing to see as it swims and turns like one creature. Until it swims into a net. A flock of birds is a fascinating thing also until it flies into an airplane.
One of my favorite wise cracks comes from Isaac Bashevis Singer who, when asked if he believed in free will, said "We have to believe in free will, we have no choice." We have no choice because we have been given the ability and right to it. Furthermore, I think we have the obligation.
A good philosopher doesn't tell me what to think. He tells me what he thinks and then asks me to think for myself, So does a good teacher, a good pastor and a good politician.
You wouldn't want people to move their excess, dirty furniture into your home, so don't let someone plant their ideas in your mental soil. Exercise your natural right to pull up the weeds of nonsense and plant only what you want to see blossom.
Vagabond Journeys
--------------------
Today's assignment:
Watch spring come,
**************************
Saturday, February 21, 2009
New Notions 2/21/09
Aware of life's terrors, he affirms life without resentment.
Nietzsche
**************************
Welcome friend.
---------------------------------
One day I got damn sick and tired of "No." It seemed like all my life people had been telling me "No." "No you can't do that. No you can't go there. No that's not good enough. It can't be done, You'll never make it Give it up. Try something else." Etc.
A director told ne I couldn't possibly play a role I had just played at another theatre. Another director told me I wasn't right for a role I went on to play anyway, somewhere else. And another director told me I had given him the best audition he had ever seen but he promised the role to someone else. There was the temptation creeping up behind me to be frustrated, resentful and disgusted. To even say "no" to myself, about myself.
Well, I did get disgusted, but in a positive way. I got fed up listening to the nihilists and negativists and set about to change the direction in which I was paddling my canoe. I wanted to start hearing "Yes!"
I began to retool and reorganize my life and my career. I kept a record of how many auditions I had to take to get a job. I increased the number of auditions by going out for things that I possibly wasn't right for. It didn't annoy me when they said "no" because I was playing for higher stakes. And I found that I was getting cast anyway where I didn't expect to be. One director handed me the script of an Albee play and said "You're too young for the role, but you're all I've got so you'll have to do it. Do your best." I did. And I did so well that a woman who had been in the original Broadway cast came to see us, came backstage to tell me I was a "marvelous actor" and left without speaking to anyone else.
One night I saw Liza Minnelli, all by herself, on a platform in the middle of a packed Yankee Stadium in New York City sing to a cheering crowd. I said "Yes" that is what an entertainer can do!
Years later I was doing a play for an audience of about 3,000 people. When I reentered for my second scene they gave me an ovation. I was on stage by myself, I made them laugh, applaud and cheer. There is no bigger "Yes" than that. It wipes out all the "no."
DB - Vagabond Journeys
---------------------------
Life is like money. Save it, and spend it wisely.
Nietzsche
**************************
Welcome friend.
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One day I got damn sick and tired of "No." It seemed like all my life people had been telling me "No." "No you can't do that. No you can't go there. No that's not good enough. It can't be done, You'll never make it Give it up. Try something else." Etc.
A director told ne I couldn't possibly play a role I had just played at another theatre. Another director told me I wasn't right for a role I went on to play anyway, somewhere else. And another director told me I had given him the best audition he had ever seen but he promised the role to someone else. There was the temptation creeping up behind me to be frustrated, resentful and disgusted. To even say "no" to myself, about myself.
Well, I did get disgusted, but in a positive way. I got fed up listening to the nihilists and negativists and set about to change the direction in which I was paddling my canoe. I wanted to start hearing "Yes!"
I began to retool and reorganize my life and my career. I kept a record of how many auditions I had to take to get a job. I increased the number of auditions by going out for things that I possibly wasn't right for. It didn't annoy me when they said "no" because I was playing for higher stakes. And I found that I was getting cast anyway where I didn't expect to be. One director handed me the script of an Albee play and said "You're too young for the role, but you're all I've got so you'll have to do it. Do your best." I did. And I did so well that a woman who had been in the original Broadway cast came to see us, came backstage to tell me I was a "marvelous actor" and left without speaking to anyone else.
One night I saw Liza Minnelli, all by herself, on a platform in the middle of a packed Yankee Stadium in New York City sing to a cheering crowd. I said "Yes" that is what an entertainer can do!
Years later I was doing a play for an audience of about 3,000 people. When I reentered for my second scene they gave me an ovation. I was on stage by myself, I made them laugh, applaud and cheer. There is no bigger "Yes" than that. It wipes out all the "no."
DB - Vagabond Journeys
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Life is like money. Save it, and spend it wisely.
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