Politeness is to human nature what heat is to wax.
Arthur Schopenhauer
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Today I got an email from Bill telling me that I should develop a more harmonious relationship with my printer, that we should develop a workable synergy between us, that we should, in short "bury the hatchet" and become friends. Bill is right. I know it's hard but I will no longer get upset if it says "out of paper" when it clearly isn't, or rant if it says "you're printer is off line" just before it prints. And if it wants to take three sheets to print one I promise to try to understand it's needs and be sympathetic.
One of the nastiest people I ever knew was my sixth grade teacher. She wasn't abusive to everyone, only to those she didn't like and she sure didn't like me. One didn't dare sass a teacher back then or you would get a knock on the head, a twisted ear or a ruler across the knuckles. These day I hear horrible stories about things students say to teachers in public schools. And about how teachers' hands are tied from dealing with it.
Is it any wonder when you see the examples children get to see. We are supposed to respect or government figures and yet we see some of them flinging poisoned verbal darts across the aisles. In the old days we were told that it was good to play sports because it would build character. And yet look at the over aggressive "characters" that show up in professional sports today.
It isn't easy to be polite and gentle in the face of rudeness and hostility, Bullies are hard to deal with merely because they are so ignorant. If someone is having a bad day what gives them the permission to take it out on other people. Certainly there are times when a person needs to be aggressive: a fighter, a debater and chess player, a rescuer. But why be aggressive when it isn't necessary? Why is it the norm that we must watch out for other people's behavior? Why is it that some people have to ridiculously "get even" with people they don't know and have never met?
We have TV shows, both fictional and reality, that entertain by showing human beings in their worst possible behavior. That's the way the world is? That's human nature?
Is it? Okay. In that case I suggest you all meet in some desert where you can all fit, beat each other to death and get it over with. In the meantime I'm going to be a gentleman with my printer and also with my fellow man, no matter how much of a skunk he is.
DB - The Vagabond
**************************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 7 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don’t be left out in the heat.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Showing posts with label schopenhauer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label schopenhauer. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Flying Solo
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
Arthur Schopenhauer
**********************
I have a photograph of a large locomotive. It look to be about a city block long. It was built to haul a long lines of heavy freight cars, the sort that are sometimes pulled by two or three locomotives.
I was thinking about the engineer who designed it. How he must have taken the technological marvels of railroad design, matched them to the specifications of his task, combined with his knowledge and abilities and finally with his own creative imagination. No doubt there is a plaque somewhere naming the owner and the builder, but I wonder if he signed it as an artist would a painting. Maybe he did in some obscure place known only to the few railroad workers who happened to discover it.
I wonder if one day he stood with other pedestrians who were unaware that he designed it and watched the monster roll by noting and admiring quietly to himself that he knew every bone, sinew, muscle and blood vessel of the great machine, huge wheels that turn in a flash, like an eagle head, to accommodate twisting, turning rails.
I can write about loneliness. I know those moments when you need to communicate with another human being about nothing in particular just to make contact with an intelligent human being. those are important moments. Thank you Mark.
Thank you Trees.
I can write about aloneness. I know about facing the dilemmas and paradoxes of life that no one can face for you and making the decisions that no one else can make. I know how important it is to know yourself and not to be told who you are. I know that your own private thoughts are the only ones you really understand.
I can write about solitude. I know the value of continuity, the great value of uninterrupted pursuit of ideas, plans and wishes. For an artist or any thinking person solitude is an essential condition and circumstance of life. To be uninterrupted by other people or even by the radio, television or outdoor activities is golden time.
I don't like my loneliness. But I accept it because I do cherish my aloneness and my solitude.
DB - The Vagabond
*****************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
4 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Arthur Schopenhauer
**********************
I have a photograph of a large locomotive. It look to be about a city block long. It was built to haul a long lines of heavy freight cars, the sort that are sometimes pulled by two or three locomotives.
I was thinking about the engineer who designed it. How he must have taken the technological marvels of railroad design, matched them to the specifications of his task, combined with his knowledge and abilities and finally with his own creative imagination. No doubt there is a plaque somewhere naming the owner and the builder, but I wonder if he signed it as an artist would a painting. Maybe he did in some obscure place known only to the few railroad workers who happened to discover it.
I wonder if one day he stood with other pedestrians who were unaware that he designed it and watched the monster roll by noting and admiring quietly to himself that he knew every bone, sinew, muscle and blood vessel of the great machine, huge wheels that turn in a flash, like an eagle head, to accommodate twisting, turning rails.
I can write about loneliness. I know those moments when you need to communicate with another human being about nothing in particular just to make contact with an intelligent human being. those are important moments. Thank you Mark.
Thank you Trees.
I can write about aloneness. I know about facing the dilemmas and paradoxes of life that no one can face for you and making the decisions that no one else can make. I know how important it is to know yourself and not to be told who you are. I know that your own private thoughts are the only ones you really understand.
I can write about solitude. I know the value of continuity, the great value of uninterrupted pursuit of ideas, plans and wishes. For an artist or any thinking person solitude is an essential condition and circumstance of life. To be uninterrupted by other people or even by the radio, television or outdoor activities is golden time.
I don't like my loneliness. But I accept it because I do cherish my aloneness and my solitude.
DB - The Vagabond
*****************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
4 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Why Didn't I Think Of that
Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Arthur Schopenhauer
********************
When I was studying art I took a drawing class for a year from a great teacher named Marshall Glazier. Mr. Glazier was not an old curmudgeon, but he liked to pretend he was for the amusement of himself and others. He would come into the class room after the class had begun saying in his gravelly voice "All right, all right, what's going on in here?"
One day he came in and said "What's the difference between genius and talent?" One person said Mozart and Salieri. Another one said Bernstein and Bacharach. He said "Yeah, those are good. Now I'll tell so that you'll know, A man of talent does what he can, a genius does what he MUST."
"Oh, that's good"someone said.
Glazier said "You think that's good? I got it out of a fortune cookie."
---------------------------------------
One definition of a genius is someone who can do something extremely difficult extraordinarily well and make it look simple. I think we all can have moments of genius. No one is a genius 24 hours a day. It is said the Albert Einstein sometimes couldn't remember if he had lunch or not and forgot where he was going.
A genius is one who comes to a solution no one else thought of and perhaps could not have thought of. When Mozart went wandering in the forest of music the trees and bushes stepped aside for him.
A genius is one who does something that can't be done. There is no way man can fly. But now we fly thanks to a couple of bicycle mechanics. We now have the benefits of the International Space Station, the Hubble Telescope, the shuttle crafts and the Soyuz vehicles thanks to the work of some far seeing geniuses who saw what others could not see and made amazing things happen.
The first step on the road to personal genius is to dismiss the idea that something can't be done, That's a lesson that took me years to learn. I pass it on to you free of charge. Once the "can't be done" is thrown out in the trash whatever it is is going to be done. The next step is the "How" factor and that means observation and imagination, followed by persistence, setting up theories and testing them, until finally the light bulb stays on and the plane stays up.
Never say "I'm not a genius" because you might be at least once in your life and probably more than once.
DB - The Vagabond
*************************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
So you didn't care for last week's Who Done It?
All right, try this one.
FINISH THIS STORY.
It was an early September in the afternoon. The sky was darkening and a storm was threatened. But Dick and Jane needed to reach the other side of the lake. So they got into their canoe with two bags of groceries and Maxine, their Chihuahua. They began paddling across the lake and everything was going well until....
Grand prize goes to the one who gives me the best continuation of this story.
Good luck.
DB
*****************
Arthur Schopenhauer
********************
When I was studying art I took a drawing class for a year from a great teacher named Marshall Glazier. Mr. Glazier was not an old curmudgeon, but he liked to pretend he was for the amusement of himself and others. He would come into the class room after the class had begun saying in his gravelly voice "All right, all right, what's going on in here?"
One day he came in and said "What's the difference between genius and talent?" One person said Mozart and Salieri. Another one said Bernstein and Bacharach. He said "Yeah, those are good. Now I'll tell so that you'll know, A man of talent does what he can, a genius does what he MUST."
"Oh, that's good"someone said.
Glazier said "You think that's good? I got it out of a fortune cookie."
---------------------------------------
One definition of a genius is someone who can do something extremely difficult extraordinarily well and make it look simple. I think we all can have moments of genius. No one is a genius 24 hours a day. It is said the Albert Einstein sometimes couldn't remember if he had lunch or not and forgot where he was going.
A genius is one who comes to a solution no one else thought of and perhaps could not have thought of. When Mozart went wandering in the forest of music the trees and bushes stepped aside for him.
A genius is one who does something that can't be done. There is no way man can fly. But now we fly thanks to a couple of bicycle mechanics. We now have the benefits of the International Space Station, the Hubble Telescope, the shuttle crafts and the Soyuz vehicles thanks to the work of some far seeing geniuses who saw what others could not see and made amazing things happen.
The first step on the road to personal genius is to dismiss the idea that something can't be done, That's a lesson that took me years to learn. I pass it on to you free of charge. Once the "can't be done" is thrown out in the trash whatever it is is going to be done. The next step is the "How" factor and that means observation and imagination, followed by persistence, setting up theories and testing them, until finally the light bulb stays on and the plane stays up.
Never say "I'm not a genius" because you might be at least once in your life and probably more than once.
DB - The Vagabond
*************************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
So you didn't care for last week's Who Done It?
All right, try this one.
FINISH THIS STORY.
It was an early September in the afternoon. The sky was darkening and a storm was threatened. But Dick and Jane needed to reach the other side of the lake. So they got into their canoe with two bags of groceries and Maxine, their Chihuahua. They began paddling across the lake and everything was going well until....
Grand prize goes to the one who gives me the best continuation of this story.
Good luck.
DB
*****************
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