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Oct. 14th, 2001 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kuangningOur imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
- Charles F. Kettering
Have you ever... quested? Set out on a search, determined not to stop until you found it? Set your sights on something, no matter what it was, and told yourself, I won't stop until I find it? Have you ever given yourself over, completely and totally, to something?
... Now, has that something ever been completely for you?
I'm listening to friends, lately, and realising that somewhere along the line, we get taught, we accept, that it's only okay to give ourselves over to something that benefits someone else directly. A job. Security for our children. And those are wonderful things to commit to... but there's more, and sometimes you have to go out and find it, y'know?
I'm not advocating complete selfishness. I'm saying that it makes me cringe, to see someone I love espouse the belief that they will never find... love. happiness. contentment. peace. For no better reason than that they believe it's selfish to reach for them. I could hold the cup of hope to your lips from now till the mountains crumble... but if you can't muster enough determination to drink from it, or you push it away because you're afraid someone will think you're selfish, you'll still die empty.
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
- Grace Murray Hopper
You get x number of days, to accomplish as much as you can. And you walk out of life with nothing more than you had when you squalled your way into it. And the winners in this mixed-up, twisted game... they're the ones who got what they needed... love, joy, peace, knowledge, wisdom... in the days in between. Why, in the name of all that's holy, are you spending your days actively sabotaging your own chances of achieving these things? The people you're afraid will think you selfish... if they know you, they'll know better. If they don't know you, either they'll judge with their minds wide shut, in which case you wouldn't have liked them anyway, and their opinions don't matter, or they'll shrug, go their own ways, and you won't be more than a footnote in their thoughts. And most of them will never notice, like it or not.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent, but if we can come to terms with this indifference, then our existence ... can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
- Stanley Kubrick
This is probably going to wind up a meaningless, wasted rant. If I could have convinced you, I would have, by now. But I have to say it anyway.. and then, I'm going to get back to looking for my own bits of light and life and love, wherever I can find them. I just wish I could show you... I wish you'd remember that we're stardust, all of us. We've got the seeds of galaxies and the magic that created the universe in everything we touch and breathe and taste, and if you're too busy caging yourself in bars that read I should and I can't, you miss the quiet whisper of possibility, and you never see the comet that lights the path you could be taking.
- Charles F. Kettering
Have you ever... quested? Set out on a search, determined not to stop until you found it? Set your sights on something, no matter what it was, and told yourself, I won't stop until I find it? Have you ever given yourself over, completely and totally, to something?
... Now, has that something ever been completely for you?
I'm listening to friends, lately, and realising that somewhere along the line, we get taught, we accept, that it's only okay to give ourselves over to something that benefits someone else directly. A job. Security for our children. And those are wonderful things to commit to... but there's more, and sometimes you have to go out and find it, y'know?
I'm not advocating complete selfishness. I'm saying that it makes me cringe, to see someone I love espouse the belief that they will never find... love. happiness. contentment. peace. For no better reason than that they believe it's selfish to reach for them. I could hold the cup of hope to your lips from now till the mountains crumble... but if you can't muster enough determination to drink from it, or you push it away because you're afraid someone will think you're selfish, you'll still die empty.
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
- Grace Murray Hopper
You get x number of days, to accomplish as much as you can. And you walk out of life with nothing more than you had when you squalled your way into it. And the winners in this mixed-up, twisted game... they're the ones who got what they needed... love, joy, peace, knowledge, wisdom... in the days in between. Why, in the name of all that's holy, are you spending your days actively sabotaging your own chances of achieving these things? The people you're afraid will think you selfish... if they know you, they'll know better. If they don't know you, either they'll judge with their minds wide shut, in which case you wouldn't have liked them anyway, and their opinions don't matter, or they'll shrug, go their own ways, and you won't be more than a footnote in their thoughts. And most of them will never notice, like it or not.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent, but if we can come to terms with this indifference, then our existence ... can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
- Stanley Kubrick
This is probably going to wind up a meaningless, wasted rant. If I could have convinced you, I would have, by now. But I have to say it anyway.. and then, I'm going to get back to looking for my own bits of light and life and love, wherever I can find them. I just wish I could show you... I wish you'd remember that we're stardust, all of us. We've got the seeds of galaxies and the magic that created the universe in everything we touch and breathe and taste, and if you're too busy caging yourself in bars that read I should and I can't, you miss the quiet whisper of possibility, and you never see the comet that lights the path you could be taking.
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completely unrelated to what you were saying
Date: 2001-10-14 11:08 am (UTC)"OoooOOOOoooh! Yanni!" [2]
Re: completely unrelated to what you were saying
Date: 2001-10-14 11:19 am (UTC)