to-eternal-oblivion

[to-eternal-oblivion]

The Great Fires

Love is apart from all things.

Desire and excitement are nothing beside it.

It is not the body that finds love.

What leads us there is the body.

What is not love provokes it.

What is not love quenches it.

Love lays hold of everything we know.

The passions which are called love

also change everything to a newness

at first. Passion is clearly the path

but does not bring us to love.

It opens the castle of our spirit

so that we might find the love which is

a mystery hidden there.

Love is one of many great fires.

Passion is a fire made of many woods,

each of which gives off its special odor

so we can know the many kinds

that are not love. Passion is the paper

and twigs that kindle the flames

but cannot sustain them. Desire perishes

because it tries to be love.

Love is eaten away by appetite.

Love does not last, but it is different

from the passions that do not last.

Love lasts by not lasting.

Isaiah said each man walks in his own fire

for his sins. Love allows us to walk

in the sweet music of our particular heart.

Jack Gilbert

#poetry #jack gilbert

[to-eternal-oblivion]

“Those who read the press of their group and listen to the radio of their group are constantly reinforced in their allegiance. They learn more and more that their group is right, that its actions are justified; thus their beliefs are strengthened. At the same time, such propaganda contains elements of criticism and refutation of other groups, which will never be read or heard by a member of another group...Thus we see before our eyes how a world of closed minds establishes itself, a world in which everybody talks to himself, everybody constantly views his own certainty about himself and the wrongs done him by the Others - a world in which nobody listens to anybody else.” ― Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes

[to-eternal-oblivion]

"A quarter of me is the fruit of heredity, another of the environment, third - of chance. So I'm only responsible for a quarter of my being."

- Akutagawa Ryunosuke

#life #being #existence #quote #person

[to-eternal-oblivion]

Is there something in human life that is wonderful, regardless of the subject's judgement?

#aesthetic #beautiful #wonderful #art #life

[to-eternal-oblivion]

"A clown who amuses the audience in a circus is forced to train himself as a clown around the clock, without knowing rest, otherwise he will not be able to compete with other, more diligent clowns and will go down one step, put on a janitor's uniform instead of a jester's cap with bells. And therefore he is always and everywhere - just a clown. He no longer has time or energy for anything else. Exactly the same bourgeois society does with a banker, a highly paid lackey, an engineer, and a mathematician. The capitalist method of division of labor does not know and does not tolerate exceptions. Therefore, professional cretinism turns here not only into a fact, but also into a virtue, into a norm, even into a kind of ideal, into a principle of personality education, to which everyone tries to comply so as not to sink to the very bottom of society, not to become a simple, unskilled labor force."

- Evald Ilyenkov

#work #philosophy #thinking #capitalism #marxism #life #labor

[to-eternal-oblivion]

Quarantine mishaps

The pandemic is leaving us to face our worst habits and things in us we try to change so bad.

Do I want to become better version of myself? Do I try enough?

It's not about the attempts done, nor the effort put. This part has been growing in you more and more during the years but you've been accustomed to the previous way of living and managing to limit the bad habit.

Now with the way of life being changed, the bad habits try to stretch to every possible corner of your new free time and to become bigger part of your personality.

Will I manage to limit the parts of me that I hate in a new way or I will symbiose with them to a new person - only time can tell. But I will not surrender that easily.

#quarantine #mishap #version #me #life #thinking #trying #attempt #better #myself #habit #habits

[to-eternal-oblivion]

How did it happen, how could it be in such way that the wisest are confused, where the ordinary people see no difficulty? And why the difficulties - the most tormenting, unbearable - to be given to the most gifted people? What could be more horrific than not knowing if you're alive or dead? "Justice" would require such knowledge or ignorance to be the same destiny to all men. So what is justice? The whole logic requires the following: pointless and ridiculous it is for some people to be judged and some not to differ life from death. Since the one who differs and the one who don't are completely different beings, we have no right to put them under the same category - human. Whoever truly knows what's life and what's death - this is human.

Lev Shestov

#life #death #philosophy #russian #lev #shestov #lev shestov #quote #book

[to-eternal-oblivion]

“Everything is temporary” has the most calming and the most disquieting meaning of all that can be said.

#people #life #tumblr #everything is temporary #time

[to-eternal-oblivion]

To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of un-differentiated nothingness: Watch out for life. I have caught life. I have come down with life. I was a wisp of undifferentiated nothingness, and then a little peephole opened quite suddenly. Light and sound poured in. Voices began to describe me and my surroundings. Nothing they said could be appealed.

Kurt Vonnegut, Deadeye Dick 

#kurt vonnegut #novel #quote #life

[to-eternal-oblivion]

Of all the animals, man is the only one that lies.

Mark Twain

#Mark Twain #lie #lies #animal #man #men #human #people

[to-eternal-oblivion]

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

Mark Twain

#Mark Twain #Quote #Day #Fool #Fooling #Concince #Convincing

[to-eternal-oblivion]

Guilty pleasures

“Yes I have so much to do, but I’ll do it later. I need to have some rest”

So many times we’ve been thinking how deadlines and important tasks to be done are affecting our mental health, that we decide to spend some quality time procrastinating or just doing something fun and relaxing, like watching TV shows, lying on the bed and staring at one point or playing video games. And yet we get used to this type of living and regardless of how small the tasks that need to be done are, we still prefer to have some quality rest first.

It is good to have your mind out of the system to recharge for a while, but then comes the other issue: “I am wasting my time instead of being productive”, which leads from mental health caring to adding anxiety and leading to the swing of “doing stuff that exhaust me” on one side and “feeling bad for having a rest”. 

It is obvious that not only one factor is causing us to be psychologically tormented by our ways of living, but finding the reason for either keep doing it or just quit is not something that will come out of nothing. 

If you’re being exhausted by what you do and doesn’t give you pleasure, try new ways of relaxing so you can feel well-rested, because you already have a job or study something, hoping for better days to come and giving up on it isn’t as easy as someone would think. But the other part of the day is yours to make different.

On the other hand, if you’re constantly anxious about not being productive enough while doing something else, maybe you should rethink what needs your time, because when being productive on something becomes stodge you try to avoid, then your labour will always be premature. 

#procrastination #work #life #doing #working #wasting time #time #laziness #lazy #tasks #do #nothing

[to-eternal-oblivion]

No matter how small, underdeveloped or strange a place is, if person's memories of better days were there, the melancholy will always make them look at it with love.

#place #town #city #old #childhood #memory #memories #better days #melanchonic #melancholy #love #miss

[to-eternal-oblivion]

Modern circuses

The phrase “bread and circucses” has been used by the ancient Roman poet Juvenal to describe how easy people can be manipulated. By giving it food and entertainment, the mass can stay deluded without thinking about more important things like life, future etc. 

When person’s need for food is satisfied, the next thing to do is to distract the mind off the important things.

Ancient Rome has seen terrific changes in society’s norms. Vicious rulers making whatever they want, killing people for fun, tormenting those below. The land had been filled with the one thing which plagues even todays world - moral decay.

We can get our bread today quite easier and that’s why we don’t think much about it. And the circuses... we hold our circuses, scroll, double tap on them, stare at them, staying in front of them for hours. They are pretty modern though.

Our modern circuses can make us twisted as the ancient romans, wanting to see violence, drown in vices in order to be entertained, so we don’t think about the issues surrounding us.

Our modern circuses can show us how bad it is and help us change the way things are, but the vicious rulers may gain the control of the circuses again. .

Our modern circuses are not just for entertainment... yet.

#ancient rome #ancient #rome #circuses #bread #vice #history #technology #boredom #writing #modern #smartphones #social media

[to-eternal-oblivion]

The coolest thing about tumblr reading/writing communities is how supportive and motivating they are.

Half of them is like: It’s okay if you haven’t read/written a page today, there’s still tomorrow. It’s important to feel ready and well-rested.

The other half is: You must read/write like this is your last day on this world! Don’t waste more of your time on unimportant things!

#tumblr #reading #writing #read #write #community #communities #funny #book #books

[to-eternal-oblivion]

The “I deserve better” phenomenon

 Many people had this thought. Whether it’s about their wealth, relationship or even health. 

But why do we think we deserve something better than how it currently is?

It’s true that current advertisements rely exactly on this type of selling: “Your life will be better if you buy this.” However, this is isn’t just about improving our lives by being consumers, because people usually are aware that money cannot provide everything they wish for and also, it’s not the same case as with wanting more. 

Most of us are taught to be grateful for what we have, because there are people who don’t even have that much and it’s true. That’s why most of the time we say we deserve better not intentionally, but out of frustration.

It is human trait to desire, to dream of something you don’t have or to think something could be superior, that’s how progress is made - not by trying to survive satisfying the needs, but by attempts to improve your life.

Taking the “better” mindset to everything else is how we try to get the best out of every situation, but we must always know that everything in our lives is currently like that, because either we did it or it happened outside of our actions. 

We should always ask ourselves: Is it this way because I didn’t do enough to improve it or it doesn’t depend on me?

After all, if something is in it’s current state because of our actions and we’re not satisfied, then we should learn how to do better, but if it’s independent on our actions, we shouldn’t bother, because we will probably just waste our time. 

#life #deserve #better #thought #random #writing #thinking #people #relationships #health #improve

[to-eternal-oblivion]

I love watching these old interviews with authors like Asimov, Vonnegut, King.

The whole interview is so concentrated on the two people talking. Nothing additional except the table on which the author’s piece is shown and supplies to make it more comfortable for both people. It is very intimate and at the same time less distracting.

#Interview #isaac asimov #asimov #isaac #sci-fi #kurt vonnegut #stephen king #king #vonnegut #dick cavett #show #book #books #dark room #dark