gravitational spine-busting hoodlum

The extremely poor are too busy staying alive to worry about changing the world. 
The extremely rich are too busy pretending to feel alive to worry about changing the world. 

The intellectuals are too busy brainwashing others to worry about changing the world.
The retards are too busy  being brainwashed to worry about changing the world.

The ordinary are too busy creating a meaningful life to worry about changing the world.
The extraordinary are too busy creating a more meaningful life to worry about changing the world.

The young are too busy growing old to worry about changing the world.
The old are too busy helping the young grow older to worry about changing the world.

We are too busy changing ourselves . . . to worry about changing the world.
The world is too busy changing itself . . . to worry about changing us.  

gratefulness

You are like the grass beneath an old cherry blossom tree;
impatiently waiting for the blossoms to kiss you;
eagerly waiting for the blossoms to decay and nourish you;
desperately waiting for the next bloom -
the next tender kiss
And grateful for gravity and the soft winds.

tasteless jam

The trees, giggling against the wind,
Amusing themselves at the sight of human inefficiency.
Cars gustle away their fuel. 
Wasting alot of energy trying to keep still. 
Trying. 
The road is not meant for this many cars. 
Is the world meant for this many people?

importance of philosophy

“Now what is the use of science? Science gives us power over Nature. It gives us mastery of all the external conditions, the external aspects of human life. But does science tell us how we should control the power we have, how we should use all the machinery and the utilities that science with its technological applications gives us? Clearly not. In fact, we live in a world in which, made dangerous by this fact, science has given us the untold power of atomic energy. But does science tell us how to use atomic energy, either in peace-time or in war, how to use it for the benefit of mankind instead of the destruction of mankind? In fact, the same scientific skills in medicine or engineering that help us cure and benefit can also help us or enable men to kill and destroy.”  (Mortimer Jerome Adler)

Science is our ungraceful and aggressive way of doing and thinking in order to mimic and understand nature. We mimic and re-contextualize the power nature has given us and try to demonstrate these powers explicitly and mindlessly and not humbly in front of the spirit we call Mother Nature. We have learnt to exploit her and ourselves far more efficiently than any other animal in her kingdom. A purely scientific society may lack in compassion: everything can be analyzed and dissected and studied.  A purely scientific utopia would be excruciatingly boring.  But beyond such a utopia is the mysterious ways of Nature, which will always make us wonder beyond any scientific doubt.

“The use of philosophy consists in giving us not the means, but the direction to the end, pointing out the goal, the things we should see, giving us the standards by which we can control our use of means. And for this very reason, in a world which has more and more science . . . it becomes more and more important to have philosophy and the use of philosophy properly respected. For power without wisdom, the possession of instrumentalities without the understanding of how to apply and direct them is extremely dangerous.”  (Mortimer Jerome Adler)

Wisdom without compassion is useless.  Compassion without wisdom is fatiguing.   Wisdom and compassion cannot be taught.  Wisdom and compassion cannot be put in a textbook.  This is the burden of every wise and compassionate being: to have a precious jewel and yet it’s luster and shine cannot be shared directly with others.   It is a burden for wise to see just how foolish the rest of the world is.  It is a burden for the compassionate being to see just how selfish and greedy the rest of the world is.   Wisdom is not necessarily the fruit of someone practicing philosophy.  Compassion is not necessary the fruit of someone helping other’s in need.  Sometimes we lose wisdom at the beginning of our philosophical quest and lose compassion at the beginning of our quest to save others.   
 

everybody needs a bosom for a pillow

Going underwater to get out of the rain,
Eating the menu, instead of the dinner.
Resting your eyelids on the windowpane.
Biting your tongue instead of leaking a tantrum.
Shaving your head to show off your muscles,
Fresh from the breast, a single drop of nourishment.
Flirting with death and escaping with a rusty kettle. 

a single thread is simple

Knots from the single thread make it complex
Knots are interplay and compromise loss and gain
The world is a knot that cannot be untied by brute cutting
The knot can only be understood by following its thread.

Marian Crane

Slothfully untying the prose:

Every thread can be made complex. 
Every stream of experience can be made complicated.
Problems imply loss/gain, and can be tied or untied. 
The world is a tapestry of knots, a knot of knots. 
Every situation, problem, individual can be represented as a knot. 
To untie the knot you need to look at the single thread, not the knot. 
Problems cannot be solved by cutting
But by finding the single thread and untying the knot. 
Untying the problem requires understanding.   

I am giving you this ‘knot’ (prose) so that you can find its single thread. 

This prose by Marian Crane is the knot to untie all knots. 

retirement

TOP TEN WAYS TO RETIRE RETIREMENT

Retire the word “retirement” from your vocabulary.  Look it up: it means to “withdraw” or “retreat.”  Words can shape reality, and it’s time for this one to go.  Doesn’t “renaissance” or “graduation” better describe your post-career life?.

Realize that retirement is a relatively new concept in human evolution. A few generations ago, before social security and full-time leisure became culturally embedded as the “norm,” elders remained productive members of society, relied upon for their insight, wisdom and skills.

Restructure your priorities around what is most important to you, like deepening relationships with family and friends, community service, or the arts.  Now is the time to bring your professional life into line with your deeper values.

Renew your zest for education. The learning cells of your brain are hungry for new and stimulating challenges, and the welcome mat is out at many schools and universities. 

Revitalize your energy by finding a community of people who embrace growth and change.  Don’t get stuck with the “been there, done that” crowd.   

Rekindle your spirit for risk taking. “Do not fear mistakes,” says jazz immortal, Miles Davis, “There are none.”  If not you, then who?  If not now, when?  

Respond to new opportunities. Remain open to the infinite possibilities the world has to offer. Your full potential may lie ahead.

Recharge your system by moving your body regularly. Walk, dance, swim, do yoga, take up hiking or biking. Find something you really enjoy and make it a part of your daily wellness program.   

Revisit your childhood dreams.  It’s never too late to be who you might have been.  Go for it!    

Remember that the wisdom to discover and act on your deepest passion is within you. 

Source: http://www.2young2retire.com/tenways.html

Comments:

Re-tyre your wheels in life.  And drive slowly and care-lessly.  

stranded thoughts

A falling leaf on a windless day.
Crossing the stream without getting wet.
A stranded arm at the side of the elbow.
Entering the water without making a ripple.
A forgotten attic hiding precious dust and space.
Seeing without puncturing the lid on our eyes.
A cranium wedged apart letting a dangerous brain grow.
Believing others without a volcano of doubts.
A delicate and silky nun’s ass sitting on a coarse bench.
Solving the riddles of life without a single mathematical error.
A greedy stain on a plain shirt attracting unnecessary attention.

too much little, too little much

Much of our character comes from how much suffering we have endured. 
Much of our suffering comes from our experiences.
Much of our experiences come from our suffering.
Much of our endurance comes from the size of our hearts.
Much of our luck comes from the unluckiness of others and our good deeds.
Much of our confusions come from too many desires and choices.
Much of our good health comes from breathing deeply.
Much of our innocence comes from the unbrattiness of our minds.
Much of our affluence comes from our wastefulness. 
Much of nothing amounts to everything.
Much of many amounts to nothing.

gazing at a gaze

Armin Linke’s gaze has obsessively followed the feverish, unfathomable rhythms of the local and global metamorphoses that are reshaping our world.  The project 4Flight, which he has diligently pursued over the last five years, has been an act of conscious inquiry and at the same time an intriguing, worrying discovery of the phenomena that are subtly and grossly affecting the living body of Planet Earth.  This growing collection of thousands of images, which forms an extraordinary encyclopedia-cum-atlas, unwittingly exposes the visual entropy that enslaves us all, as well as the profound narrowness of our view of the world we inhabit.

This inquiry tells of the horror vacui that permeates every act of our existence, driving us to document, control, possess and consume even the remotest phenomena of our world and at the same time portrays with crystal clarity the value that fragments of reality encompass as a unique condition of life.But crushed beneath the weight of the thousands of images, each recounting their own story, and segments of reality, we slowly realize that Linke’s work is actually trying to demonstrate the contrary: the photographic gaze as an act that tries to sketch its own insights over the new and changing essences of contemporary reality.

Is it possible to talk about an explosive, elusive world using a few visual fragments?  Is it still conceivable to talk about the essence of reality in a cultural dimension that tends to view every perspective and philosophy in relativistic terms?

It is a way of listening that we have partially lost, and that many of Linke’s images invite us to rediscover. 

Luca Molinari

Comments

Armin Linke drowns you in his visual plethora of images, making you forget that you are part of this explosive, elusive world that he that he talks about and is visually representing with a few fragments.  It is still conceivable to talk about the essence of reality in relativistic terms.   It may conceivably not make sense but behind all the senselessness there is much sense to be unearthed.  

Our culture has lost much patience.  Our culture has lost many of its values and traditions.  Our culture has lost much of its sincerity.   Our culture no longer nourishes in the old ways.   Our culture seems to suffocate us more than bless us with the freedom to just simply be and rest.   Our culture has gained much nonsense at the expense of losing our senses.   Our culture has destroyed much of Nature.   Our culture is obsessed with images and not the reality behind them.   We can rediscover our innocence in an image but that discovery is just a fossilized fragment that leads us even thirstier.   We can rediscover our innocence in a child but that discovery will just breed jealousy.  We can rediscover what we have lost in images but we lose much more in that discovery.  

We have lost much of our attention span.  We are more willing to slouch in front of a giant screen for two hours than slouch in front of a painting for two hours.  It is uncommon that someone spends ten to twenty minutes on a single artwork.  What is to blame?  Our fragmented attention and lack of ability to concentrate.  Our fragmented attention is merely a reflection of our media-infested culture.  

Armin Linke is just another crack in the earth that thirsts for the next monsoon and shares enough room for a mushroom to grow.