I’m not one for favorites; I think it’s a form of experiential laziness. That said, there is music that has particular emotional resonance for me because it’s what was playing where I was when I was when I was younger — mostly rock and indie rock.
…we should not be too confident in our belief of anything.
cicero; tusculan disputations
No matter what plans you make,
Rumi; Mathnawi II
no matter what you acquire,
the thief will enter from the unguarded side.
Be occupied, then, with what you really value
and let the thief take something less.
Very little is needed to make a happy life;
Marcus aurelius; Meditations
it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
I possess, but I am not possessed by her;
aristippus [according to Diogenes laertius in
since the best thing is to possess pleasures
without being their slave,
not to be devoid of pleasures.
lives of the eminent philosophers]
Do not fear the gods.
philodemus; Herculaneum papyrus
Do not fear death.
What is good is easy to attain.
What is painful is easy to endure.
[Often referred to as the four cures of epicurus]
A walk in the park. Most things in life are no walk in the park, but you can’t say that about a walk in the park.
[This message brought to you by WALK IN THE PARK.]
Alone, the hermit returns home to sleep.
He's cleansed of cares by way of solitude.
He gives thanks and praise to the geese on high
For lifting feelings to grand altitude.
Day or night, his mind holds no intentions,
Who can sense his energy, so subdued?
His flight and submergence self-limited,
Where can he find calm, and still be renewed?
This is the third poem in 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首] as well as the third of a quartet of poems entitled Gǎn Yù [感遇] that open the collection. The original in Simplified Chinese is:
幽人归独卧， 滞虑洗孤清。
持此谢高鸟， 因之传远情。
日夕怀空意， 人谁感至精？
飞沉理自隔， 何所慰吾诚？
in a flat, wide river:
something juts up
from the water --
far in the distance
for an instant,
i startle:
seeing it as an
extended arm...
like that Stevie Smith
poem, but i discover
it's neither waving,
nor drowning, but
merely protruding...
a dead limb
stuck in the river,
drag & pull balanced,
waiting to be
carried away.
It is autumn; not without,
But within me is the cold.
Youth and spring are all about;
It is I that have grown old.
Birds are darting through the air,
Singing, building without rest;
Life is stirring everywhere,
Save within my lonely breast.
There is silence: the dead leaves
Fall and rustle and are still;
Beats no flail upon the sheaves
Comes no murmur from the mill.
I don’t know that I’ve ever regretted taking a risk. I’ve taken some bruises for them on occasion but not felt regret.
I did once try to block a staff strike with an ill-positioned / ill-timed wooden sword. I got a mild concussion that time, but still — I don’t think — regret (but I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, maybe it damaged the part of my brain that is capable of regret.)
I’m with Miyamoto Musashi, who wrote: “我事におゐて後悔を／せず” [“I will not regret my deeds.”] in his Dokkôdô [“Way of Walking Alone.”] Of course, he probably suffered his share of concussions as well.
The older I get, the more I find regret to be a sucker’s game. I was the me then that I was, wishing the me then was the me now is just a waste of angst. Learn and move. Learn and move. No regret.
All sorts of stuff — e.g. gabby strangers approaching me unexpectedly when I’m in a low mental energy state. But when I observe the sensation of that nervousness, without rumination or feeding of the feeling, it fades rapidly. As Twain [allegedly, but possibly never] said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
A psychology teacher taught us about what he called “the gestalt of expectations.” It’s when one builds an alternative reality in one’s mind (typically a worst-case scenario) and then one acts as though it is a reality, when – in fact – it is not. (Though sometimes it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy situation, which — of course — triggers selection bias in people of the unexamined life.)
It was my introduction to what I would come to know as the most fundamental insight of human existence — i.e. that one’s experience of the world is not the world itself, and while one has minimal influence over the latter, one can have tremendous influence over the former. One can even train oneself to perceive difficulties and sorrows as learning and growth opportunities.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 