Tag Archives: Philosophy of Life

“To Tirzah” by William Blake [w/ Audio]

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Whate'er is Born of Mortal Birth
 Must be consumed with the Earth
 To rise from Generation free:
 Then what have I to do with thee?

The Sexes sprung from Shame & Pride,
 Blow'd in the morn; in evening died;
 But Mercy chang'd Death to Sleep;
 The Sexes rose to work & weep.
 
Thou, Mother of my Mortal part,
 With cruelty didst mould my Heart,
 And with false self-deceiving tears
 Didst bind my Nostrils, Eyes, & Ears:

Didst close my Tongue in senseless clay,
 And me to Mortal Life betray.
 The Death of Jesus set me free:
 Then what have I to do with thee?

PROMPT: Grow

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What experiences in life helped you grow the most?

The ones that involved repeated non-catastrophic failures (e.g. martial arts practice.)

Also, the ones that confronted fears (e.g. open sea swimming.)

“Away with Funeral Music” by Robert Louis Stevenson [w/ Audio]

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Away with funeral music -- set
   The pipe to powerful lips --
 The cup of life's for him that drinks
   And not for him that sips.

“Lethe” by Walter de la Mare [w/ Audio]

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Only the Blessed of Lethe's dews
   May stoop to drink. And yet,
 Were their Elysium mine to lose,
 Could I, sans all repining, choose
   Life's sorrows to forget?

Let it Float [Lyric Poem]

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Sans fear of dying,
 The angst of trying
   Is felt and left
      To float.

PROMPT: Favorite People

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Daily writing prompt
Who are your favorite people to be around?
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People who take nothing seriously. A distant second goes to those who take everything seriously. And dead last, being people I avoid at all costs, are those who have a sizable set of ideas that they believe should be treated deadly seriously by everyone, while finding others’ serious stuff to be mockable.

Einstein said there are two ways of viewing the world, as if everything is a miracle or nothing is. I’m sure Einstein recognized that there were many people who, in fact, believed their own sect to have “legitimate miracles,” while believing the miracles of other sects were mere superstition. And what he was really getting at was that the latter stance is presumptuous, indefensible, and – quite frankly – ridiculous. Anyhow, my own spin is that there are two legitimate ways to view the world: to take nothing serious and to take everything seriously. All others are shades of petty narcissism.

[As I think of it, I guess I could have answered more simply with the single word: “Travelers.”]

“Worldly Place” by Matthew Arnold [w/ Audio]

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Even in a palace, life may be led well!
 So spake the imperial sage, purest of men,
 Marcus Aurelius. But the stifling den
 Of common life, where, crowded up pell-mell,

Our freedom for a little bread we sell,
 And drudge under some foolish master's 
   ken
 Who rates us if we peer outside our pen --
 Match'd with a palace, is not this a hell?

Even in a palace! On his truth sincere,
 Who spoke these words, no shadow ever
   came;
 And when my ill-school'd spirit is aflame

Some nobler, ampler stage of life to win,
 I'll stop, and say: "There were no succour
   here!
 The aids to noble life are all within."

PROMPT: Budgeting

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Write about your approach to budgeting.

Don’t want much. Don’t need much. And hope for the best.

Quest [Lyric Poem]

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Is it every person's dream
   To be what one is,
   And not what one seems?

Or would one rather be
   The creature of one's dreams --
   Who no one ever sees?

Or should one be the best
   Of real and imagined:
   The host and the guest?

How much of who we are
  Is the views of others
      And how much is ours?
      (And is any of it 
      Written in the stars?)

PROMPT: Dream Home

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Daily writing prompt
Write about your dream home.
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I think Chōmei said everything that need be said on the matter — and more eloquently than I would — in Hōjōki [i.e. 10-Foot Square Hut.]

For elaboration, see…

HERE