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I've been doing a lot of reading lately...

Purple

Hi guys!
Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
10,383
Location
Duluth, Georgia
And i've been thinking.

Do you ever wonder just how you're living your life? If you're truly taking life by the reins and taking control of everything possible. To do this I would think you would have to take advantage of every person you talk to. Obviously that would be immoral to take advantage of everyone, but does it really matter? Your life is just that, your life. In the end, do any of the decisions you make really affect you? You can live your life running away from the dangers of consequence, using person by person to get what you want. In the end, most of the consequences for trivial things probably aren't that bad.

Is the best way to live your school life to study as much as possible and get all A's? Why do we actually have to study? We can take advantage of a person in each subject, and get the same general effect. The idea of not knowing if you'll survive, but enjoying the present moment is a thrilling idea, but something that isn't strived for.

That girl (or guy depending on perception) you liked back in the day. Did you try as hard as you should've? When you were in that relationship, and found someone else who tickled your fancy (odd way to say it..), did you immediately break up with the former to try your efforts in the latter? Each relationship with each person might give a different, (better or worse) feeling. Shouldn't we try to experience every feeling?

We use smash brothers as a hobby, aren't there more games to play? Hell, can't we make our own?

I really wonder do I take true advantage of my life, and after a couple of minutes (it really didn't take much) thought, I realized I'm not. Most people don't take advantage of their lives.

I wonder where I should start. Maybe I should get off the computer and take a walk outside.

(this thread was posted in two locations, if you're one of the few who would've noticed, please respond in both locations)
 

ZIO

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Joined
Sep 14, 2006
Messages
10,884
Location
FREEDOM
My life sucks. But I ignore it because it could be worse. I am a lazy **** and should be trying to get a move on with my comic, yet I sit here browsing the internet. What of it makes it so that I feel obligated to sit back and do nothing? When I do something, I make any and all attempts to finish the project, and with stellar results.

Life could be more. Life could be less. There's no reason to ponder the "what ifs" or we would have wasted the time that it takes to find answers to those questions.
 

ph00tbag

C(ϾᶘϿ)Ͻ
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
7,245
Location
NC
Ayn Rand was a terrible author.

Her philosophy kinda sucked, too.
 

PolMex23

Smash Champion
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
2,536
Location
Passion Central
your fine brother. Just try to better yyourself every day.

Strive for perfection since you cant reach it. Life is an experience, so abuse it.
 

Aglow

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
405
Location
European Alaska
Hey heatstroke.

I know you don't know me, but I have been doing a lot of reading as well, to a different end I suppose, and I felt that you may care to hear my thoughts on this (assuming as much anyways, seeing as how you posted it here).

I find daily that I am overwhelmed and delighted by the sheer magnitude of the world. Beauty is invasive, and it is mingled so fiercely with the pain; a rich fruit. The girl I didn't try hard enough for...the one I KNOW I didn't try hard enough for...I was thinking of her the other night (it's been years), and I can't begin to bridge the distance. She moved, I moved, and the pain of things unsaid...I was lying there awake, aching, and struck by the brightness of it all.

The chance to live with her in the first place, her slim hands, her body in the window-light, in the morning ...the understanding that I deserved none of it. Not one instance of beauty or pleasure came to me because I was better or stronger than anyone else. I simply listened, I waited.

I feel as if my life is being spread before me by a master narrator, I imagine some God like a good host. Preparing this place for me. This is the heaven, I think. Everything is shining in the light of wildness. My friend's wedding, my aunt's miscarriage, everything, every **** thing makes me reverent, humble, reminded that the bright gears are always moving and I get to bear witness, I am the joyous one, we are all the joyous witnesses when we can consume everything properly.

I think of James Wright saying:
"I know the world immeasurably alive and good / though bare as rifted paradise"

And Jack Gilbert :
"I am wild for what I am becoming / I am hungry to fail"

The only control I have of this life is to mediate between pain and beauty, to alchemize heartache into treasure.

I hope that, in trying to take control of your own life, you don't lose the sense of wonder associated with bearing witness to this symphonic, perishing world.

I also hope that you consider this outlook as an alternative: what has been made by nature, chance, fate is often far more lovely and terrible than that which we can forge by our own powers here in this brief time-span. Our true power is in our ability to undergo the journey with love, patience, and undying faith in the goodness of this narrative.
 

Purple

Hi guys!
Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
10,383
Location
Duluth, Georgia
From what i read, it seems you'd rather be a spectator to your own life, then create your life on your own.
 

Aglow

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
405
Location
European Alaska
From what i read, it seems you'd rather be a spectator to your own life, then create your life on your own.
I wouldn't say I'm spectating. I'm also particpating. The power to forge our life, I think, is beyond us.

It sounds like you've been reading some Rand. You can correct me if I'm wrong. If you are interested in discussions of choice vs happenstance and whatnot concerning life, I really encourage you to read Hesse, particularly Demian and Siddhartha. Also, Milan Kundera's "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting". And if you find you dig those, Jorge Borges "The Garden of Forking Branches"

I used to really dig Rand/ the "Make yourself" concept. I still agree with parts of it. One of my favorite scupltures:

http://www.cordair.com/carlyle/images/selfmademan1.jpg
 
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