Philosophy

Day 3175, how many pictures do you want hanging on the wall?

Daily picture, Poetry 
I sometimes wonder 
out loud 
inside 

are memories not better
then what is happening now 

is life not best viewed in hindsight 

is even the best experience not consumed 
by the one just following 
and following
lost in the moment
leftovers in memory 

is the completion
the memory of the rush
cooled down
not better

can it not be remembered over and over
like a picture on the wall 

but I was wondering
when is enough
enough

are 10 good memories not enough
or 50
a 100
a 1000
?

Continue reading →

Day 3172, three times.

Daily picture, Quotes

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Gay Science
Joke, Cunning, and Revenge

18 Narrow Souls
Narrow souls I cannot abide;
There’s almost no good or evil inside.

21 Against Airs
Those who inflate themselves are cursed
When pricked by a small pin to burst.

25 Request
The minds of others I know well;
But who I am. I cannot tell:

My eye is much too close to me,
I am not what I saw and see.
It would be quite a benefit
If only I could sometimes sit
Farther away; but my foes are
Too distant; close friends. still too far;
Between my friends and me, the middle
Would do. My wish? You guess my riddle.

Day 3167, pretender.

Daily picture, My thoughts

Being honest with yourself is the most frustrating thing. I still remember the first time I learned something new that put what I thought before to shame.  Maybe you have had that too; you were so sure about a fact of life, an important life choice, or your self-image that it got turned around to the point that you don’t understand you could have ever thought differently, let alone the way you felt before, the day before. I have had these moments in my life, and though I have gotten new beliefs instead of the old ones, the new ones stand on shakier ground. What if these new beliefs are also wrong? I didn’t doubt myself before, so the absence of doubt now is not a guarantee anymore. 

If you are honest with yourself, you know that your opinions are not worth much. This strong opinion that I have about this subject is caught in some kind of contradiction. I have to doubt my opinion, which you have to doubt. 

I have always known that life is just a play, and we all play a role. Most people probably don’t know that they play a role and that the script is handed to them when they are born. When I was around 16, my favorite teeshirt was one with Freddy Mercury on it with big letters saying “The Great Pretender.” Back then, I already knew that something fishy was going on, that I was just playing my role, one that people seemed to expect, or at least I thought they did. But it took another 10 years before I knew that what we think is true is just that, we think it is true, and the role I play is just that. 

Continue reading →

Day 3164, far away.

Daily picture, Quotes

Friedrich Nietzsche

Human, all too Human
From the Souls of Artists and Writers

148 Poets as the easers of life. -The poets, insofar as they, too, want to make our lives easier, either turn our gaze away from the toilsome present or help the present acquire new colors by shining light upon it from the past. To be capable of this, they must themselves be turned back toward the past in many respects: so that we can use them as bridges to far away times and ideas, to dying or deceased religions and cultures. They are, in fact, always and necessarily epigones. Admittedly, we can say some unfavorable things about the means that they use to make life easier: they soothe and heal only temporarily, only for the moment; they even keep people from working toward genuine improvement of their circumstances, because they suspend and, by palliating it, discharge the passion that impels dissatisfied people toward action.