Sunday Farmers Market – Campbell, California
Now that phenomenal existence is no more bolstered by impressions from within or without, we feel the need to lean on something that abides, that will never play us false – a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth: the perfect friend.
I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises, and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the Earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire–why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express & admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals–and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being, to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.
Carl Jung
Work is the way you occupy your mind & hand & eye and whole body, when they’re informed by your imagination & wit, by your keenest perceptions, by your most profound reflections on everything you’ve read & seen & heard and been a part of.
Work Is When You Put Off Playtime
Liberal & conservative are terms used – not to think – but to avoid thinking. You can classify anything as liberal or conservative, then simply declare yourself as being one or the other. All your thoughts for the rest of your life can be a knee jerk.
When confronting an obstacle, there’s no reason to run. Start with a better world at the center, overcome the inevitable barriers, then expand to encompass more territory.
Impediments need not hinder growth.
He accepted another pint and took a pull at it. “Of course, I had my own personal alchemist too.”
“You what?”
He was getting silly and he knew it. Exuberance and Hall and Woodhouse best bitter was a mixture to be wary of, but one of the first effects it had is to stop you being wary of things, and the point at which Arthur should have stopped and explained no more was the point at which he started instead to get inventive.
“Oh yes,” he insisted with a happy glazed smile. “It’s why I’ve lost so much weight.”
“What?” said his audience.
“Oh yes,” he said again. “The Californians have rediscovered alchemy. Oh yes.”
He smiled again.
SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH (1999) by Douglas Adams
How do people suppress things? Generally, alcohol suppresses fear, nicotine suppresses anger and frustration, marijuana suppresses sadness, and caffeine suppresses the long-lasting, energy-sapping results of other forms of suppression.
Rebirthing by Leonard & Laut (1983)
“It is as painful perhaps to be awakened from a vision as to be born. Any object, intensely regarded, may be a gate of access to the incorruptible eon of the gods.”
Chapter 14: Oxen of Sun – Ulysses by James Joyce