How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

~ Thoreau

The philosopher is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. He alone perceives the illusion of which all creatures are the willing playthings; he is less duped than his neighbor by his own nature. He judges more sanely, he sees things as they are. It is in this that his liberty consists -- in the ability to see clearly and soberly, in the power of mental record.

~ Henri Amiel

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

~ St. Thomas Aquinas

Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.

~ Karl Marx

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

- Aristotle

the busy masses...

better late than never.

better late.

war.

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.

~Charles Sumner

chaos in art.

Tragically beautiful.

Doris Salcedo.

insomnia.

music.

"Music at its best...is the grand archeology into and transfiguration of our guttural cry, the great human effort to grasp in time our deepest passions and yearnings as prisoners of time. Profound music leads us--beyond language--to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial heights of our silence. "

~Cornel West

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

news flash.

For all you Obama haters (which I mostly know of in the small conservative town of Rockwell) check this out:

Bush set 60 Billion dollars for eduaction, hence why they are paid less than most "professions" and why they are being laid off right now.

Obama plans to move the bar from 60 billion to 136 billion this year and 140+ billion thereafter. Think about the contributions of NASA, general technology, or my bias-philosophy. These professions are progressive because of the very fact that they solve problems and take initiative in answering questions about the world and its counterparts. Education is the key to progress, without it, we are only tools for capitalism, feudalism, etc., keeping us out of touch and removed from the essence of life and the joy of inquiry in experience.

i'm no activist.

After watching "Milk" and living amongst the "redneck" tradition most of my life, I realized something special. If my time spent in Rockwell has taught me anything, it's ignorance. It's almost unimaginable the ignorance that many in this town portray, in aversion to blacks, as well as homosexuals and Mexicans. Basically, if it isn't white, "it ain't right." My decision to leave this literal God-forsaken place one day is in this aforementioned fact. I can't imagine what it would be like, to live in a place where people are treated as people, where humility runs rampant, and where compassion overrides religious damnation. Gays, blacks, Muslims = people. Towns like this make me sick to my stomach in their hypocrisy of "Christlike" attitudes where they believe that compassion should be balanced with the wrath of Sodom and Gomorrah. The way the world looks now, I doubt that our naturally chaotic human ways will ever reach any virtuous pinnacle where honesty overrides greed, where pragmatism overrides dogma, and moreover, where love is pure and without bias.

God bless the united states of bigotry and tradition.

on sex.

In his work "Inner Experience," Bataille brings to light the power of the erotic as well as the importance of living in the present. (In conversation against asceticism in religion)

The man knowing nothing of eroticism is no less a stranger to the end of the possible than is the man without inner experience. One must choose the arduous, turbulent path--that of the non-mutilated "whole man."

So, basically, to be a "whole person" one must meditate often, and more importantly, indulge in the erotic. Good advice there Bataille, I think I'll take it...

that.

if memories are things, like dreams,
and if dreams are intangible things...
it's unimaginable
as well as unnatural
to treat dreams as ordinary scenes.

for these scenes, that are in fact real things
at night-

Reign Supreme.

...after a night of lucid dreaming I stumbled upon this in a reading for class, and of course, I had to store it in my memory bank of quotations (aka my blog)...

"Dreams are not something outside of the course of events; they are in and of it. They are not cognitive distortions of real things, they are more real things."

~ John Dewey

Born like this
Into this
As the chalk faces smile
As Mrs. Death laughs
As the elevators break
As political landscapes dissolve
As the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
As the oily fish spit out their oily prey
As the sun is masked
We areBorn like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings
Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes
Born into this
Walking and living through this
Dying because of this
Muted because of this
Castrated
Debauched
Disinherited
Because of this
Fooled by this
Used by this
Pissed on by this
Made crazy and sick by this
Made violent
Made inhuman
By this
The heart is blackened
The fingers reach for the throat
The gun
The knife
The bomb
The fingers reach toward an unresponsive god
The fingers reach for the bottle
The pill
The powder
We are born into this sorrowful deadliness
We are born into a government 60 years in debt
That soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt
And the banks will burn
Money will be useless
There will be open and unpunished murder in the streets
It will be guns and roving mobs
Land will be useless
Food will become a diminishing return
Nuclear power will be taken over by the many
Explosions will continually shake the earth
Radiated robot men will stalk each other
The rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms
Dante's Inferno will be made to look like a children's playground
The sun will not be seen and it will always be night
Trees will die
All vegetation will die
Radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men
The sea will be poisoned
The lakes and rivers will vanish
Rain will be the new gold
The rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind
The last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases
And the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition
The petering out of supplies
The natural effect of general decay
And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard
Born out of that.
The sun still hidden there
Awaiting the next chapter.

~ Bukowski

I'm not a poet.

the man
the man deceived.

in all he’s perceived
in all that he’s achieved.

swallowed, consumed
sorrow resumed.

the man’s failed
the man has been derailed

from life
from love
from strife; all the above.

but there’s no doubt
but there can be nothing without

the man
the man deceived.

because
for all he’s “achieved”
that he is still me.

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.

~ James Russel Lowell

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

~Henry David Thoreau

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wisdom

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

relationships, etc.

Most can agree that life is difficult and beautiful because of our constant changing reality. People come and go, are born and die. This is the focus of this writing.

I used to be concerned of women and my relationship with them for immature and lustful reasons. And, although lust is still a part of my mind's "vocabulary," the action is no longer there. I am sure to not fuck up the engagement I am currnetly in. Anyway, that's not the point. The problem I face is the same problem that I have with death. That is to say, the death of a relationship...

There are many friends I have had, or at least thought I'd had, that are no longer close friends. They are but mere aquaintances these days, which is the object of my sadness. Some I used to spend many nights with, talking about what the future could hold for us, together as "boys for life," and others were just simply spent being childlike and reminiscing over Disney movies via singing The Little Mermaid. I've related these memories to death for the obvious reason that the memories are gone forever, yes, but what is the difference between a severed relationship with these people and their actual death. The sad fact is, nothing. Things change and people grow apart, but the saddest thing about missing a relationship is when the people are still around. Of course we are to cherish the newfound friends and loved ones, but when it comes to reconnecting with the past, there are only a select few that can help fill the void. So, to all those peoples in the past that I've made fond memories with, I wish to illuminate my sorrow. Hopefully, in due time, we can all reconnect and reflect on the old ones and/or, preferably, make new ones.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever...
~ Gandhi

An ode to memories.

I was recently called a packrat by my significant other and was wrestling with an explanation of how I am not. I came to find that I am sort of a packrat, but I like to call it "preserving the past." I store papers, notes (from myself and others), etc...

I feel as though if I didn't keep these things that when I am a 65 year old man that is questioning his value in the world, approaching death, that I could have reminders of the past in various forms (digital, tangible, etc.).

After reflecting on this, I found a potential "New Year's Resolution." I feel if I were to focus on the present while embracing the future, and cherish the past in moderation, I should feel more optimistic. Not to say that I'm grounded in pessimism, but if the mind is stuck trying to preserve ALL of the past's memories then one will suffer. It is impossible not to be affected by suffering when reflecting on cherished memories of the past because anything, any moment, anyone that you can't revisit will only bring about sadness.

Since everything is impermanent, we must enjoy life as it flows and reflect on the past in moderation. The future will be bright and the past is already missed, but right now is the only place we can be, therefore it is what we should pay the most attention to. Obviously this is easy to say and hard to practice. That is why it is this year's resolution...