There are some people who live their lives according to great mantras like, This Too Shall Pass, or Everything Works Out In The End. They'll tell you a catch-all phrase, Accept Loss Forever, or, Don't Pine Away Over Old Flames, but when I bite into them they're all just lemons, they all taste the same, and I can see them coming a mile off like the tightening feeling in the back of your mouth before you eat salt and vinegar chips. They wait for you to say amen, like they divined some great and mystic truth and curled it into six syllables or less, when the complexities and intricacies of life can't even be encapsulated in all those religious texts. Life is such that wisdom is not knowing and folly is to presume to know, but I don't tell them because I'm not sure and because I think they should believe whatever may bring them comfort. And what do I believe? Ask me one day when you're not feeling so good.
10 comments:
I believe that this snail will be good with a little butter, garlic and parsley!
Seriously, I try to believe in me and it is not easy everydays ! then think of other things or religion !!....? seems to me difficult !
french tony
I know what you are saying, yet sometimes when I ocme upon someone in pain or sorrow, it is hard to know what to say and one resorts to the catch all phrase which of course can't come near to the complexity of the feelings within the person in sorrow. Yet, it is or can be a gesture/a way of saying I am with you or I am listening or do not despair. Course now I'm sounding like one of those lemons. I don't mean to talk you out of your perceptions.I wouldn't do that anyway. And i agree that wisdom is not knowing. Yet it seems to me that it is not a bad thing to reach out to someone in whatever way one can even if that is not the best way or the sweetest.
Hi Hopper.
Oh yes sometimes we only taste lemons. Like your post saying: this is how it is. And I like Suki's comment too, saying it all.
Helix, Felix, Helios, come on over to Miss Doodle, she has a surprise for you:)
love
Andrea
Well
All’s well that ends well…
Chin up
Carry on
When life gives you lemons…
…
…
Ok
When life hands me lemons
Sometimes I throw them at the happy people
I used to be very good at this…
I also take little comfort in clichés
And so I try to avoid them
It’s so hard to know what to say
Often there is nothing you can say
As for me
If it is something I understand
Or if it is similar to something I understand
Then I put something of myself out there
I don’t know if that provides any comfort
Or relief
But it seems like the right thing to do
.
Jon, seems you're contradicting yourself:
"but I don't tell them because I'm not sure and because I think they should believe whatever may bring them comfort."
and you DID tell them... us... and sure we don't feel comfortable anymore...
:D
(as to the second part, i'm kidding...)
Helix... think if universe is going to have a form, it'll be a helix...
same as its microcosmic counterpart... our DNAs
and why this form?... because lots of things can come together in a minimum of space...
regarding the mantras... they all are parts of the only mantra there is... and since it is very difficult for the linear logic of today's man to understand and remember one single mantra in the form of a helix, each person clings to one part of it that resonates his/her being...
and nothing bad a bout it... on the contrary, it will be beautiful to have the truth when all come together...
truth can be achieved both by bringing together the pieces of a shattered mirror or just through each of those pieces...
just be patient... ha ha ha ... another mantra, eh?
what about Koans? this one is for you... your name is inscribed in/on it:
Job walking
On a land
Newly found
Amending
The way people live
Hooting a song
Anyone knows but
Never sings...
p.s. wisdom is not "not knowing"...
it is " KNOWING that you don't know..."
and crows know that they don't know but presume that they know...
wise fools or...?
:D
I've noticed, even in myself, the urge to look for "final answer" on everything from what to eat for breakfast to what I want to be when I grow up. It's much harder to realize that I don't have the final answer, and this moment's answer might not work as early as in the morning.
You could tell them it is folly to presume, but you won't strip them of anything, because they won't believe you. And they shouldn't....we all need to believe in whatever it is we believe in...even if we aren't sure what that is.
Lately I've been saying "I'm sorry you are sad. I wish I had an answer" because that is true and meant to be comforting.
So, my friend, I'm sorry you are sad, I wish I had an answer.
hi Jon!
after that misunderstanding, the crow's worried about your interpretation of that crow-made Koan!
all those words have got a very very positive connotation for the crow: Job, a land newly found(also a pun on your motherland -- so precious for the crow), hooting (ponder on this... why not singing a flowery song like a nightingale but hooting like an owl?)
Jon, this is the picture of you in my mind... a poet...losing lots of things like Job but trying to amend ... oh if the world didn't have the poets... the real prophets... the real heroes... to HOOT the song other people don not DARE to sing, there would be no hope... even no life on this planet...
all the words and images came to my mind in a flash of light... then like other times i write something, i sat there discovering them for myself!!!... (and the crow is the first reader and critic of her own silly words... but you know, they are the only thing i've got in this world since childhood (i never think i own my husband or child, as BBC wants me to do so -- no matter how dearly i love them)... i live by them... if i don't write, i'll die... i have tried this once... for several years... a horrible experience!
love to you dear hopping hooting young friend of mine...
To beleive...
To try to comfort...
words...
I get angry when someone says This too shall pass, or He's in a better place...
how the hell do they know!
No he is not
Better than what, where, what could have been
I am angry
loss sucks
mantras have helped many a soul within the black tunnel of depression, and they do work, so don't knock them.....
after all:
'never cricise your neighbour until you've walked a mile in his moccasins!'
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