Monday, October 2, 2017
On meaning.........................
"Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste of time to be asking the question when you are the answer."
-Joseph Campbell
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Within reasonable limits................
The respect for authority, the presumption in favor of those who have won intellectual reputation, is within reasonable limits, both prudent and becoming. But it should not be carried too far, and there are some things especially as to which it behooves us all to use our own judgment and to maintain free minds. For not only does the history of the world show that undue deference to authority has been the potent agency through which errors have been enthroned and superstitions perpetuated, but there are regions of thought in which the largest powers and the greatest acquirements cannot guard against aberrations or assure deeper insight. ... A man of special learning may be a fool as to common relations. And that he who passes for an intellectual prince may be a moral pauper there are examples enough to show.
-Henry George
On the importance of not feeling guilty....
..........especially about music. Any Major Dude With Half A Heart has compiled eight album length mixes of music one should not feel guilty enjoying. His latest release is here. My favorite, Mix #2 is here. Back story is here.
In praise of butterflies...................
.............................and short attention spans. Kurt shares a truth.
No, in the end, as in the beginning, there was nothing for it for me but to become a writer, for one of the surest routes to becoming a writer, or so after some consideration I have discovered, is to be fit to do nothing else. In my case, a writer meant, specifically, an essayist, that butterfly among literary workers, flying from subject to subject, as butterflies do from flower to flower. Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Max Beerbohm, H.L. Mencken, the great essayists, were, I do believe, short-attention-span men, butterflies all.
Perspectives.....................
... human greatness and terribleness are not correlated with wealth or other conventional measures of success. I've also learned that judging people before really seeing things through their eyes stands in the way of understanding their circumstances - and that isn't smart. I urge you to be curious enough to want to understand how people who see things differently from you came to see them that way. You will find that interesting and invaluable, and the richer perspective you gain will help you decide what you should do.
-Ray Dalio, Principles
All dogs go to heaven...............
Proof, as if you needed any, comes from Ray's channeling of Snickers - which is to found here. Hidden in the midst, one finds this philosophical question of great importance:
- We dogs can understand human verbal instructions, hand signals, whistles, horns, clickers, beepers, scent IDs, electromagnetic energy fields, and Frisbee flight paths. What do humans understand?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
