Work, moving, busted internet, laundry, and the occasionally necessary five chord progression, has made it difficult to blog on-line, so I’ve composed these last few entries in the old-school fashion of bringing pen to paper. Looking ahead at the next few days, I’m resigning to the notion that I will not yet commit these mental yarns to cyber-memory for a few days days to come. Although the mere formation of this entry creates in me an interestingly intense ‘tenseual’ trepidation: should it be in the past, present, or future tense at the time of entry to the blog page? An interesting conundrum. At the time I physically write this I am speaking about the past condition of my distracted nature, my present state of lethargy, and my hectic future which will cause a lag time between the creation of these thoughts and the communication of them to anyone, including my future self. If this entry is placed in the present tense, then at the time of posting to the site, which is currently the future, it will be to me, in that moment, the past, and yet I will need to type these words as though they are the present, knowing full well that when you read them you will note that it is posted under a previous date and categorize them as being in from past! So what does this all boil down to?I’m lying to you.
Transient Churchill
“We make a living by what we get,
We make a life by what we give.”
–Winston Churchill
This passage has reminded me of a few inexorable truths, the essence of which have been simmering in my consciousness for some time now. Obviously the giving is what has been emphasized, and rightfully so, but I feel that, coming from my blue-collar background, I’ve been bombarded with giving and had my getting strangled. So I would like to focus on the aspect of this great man’s quote that has been glossed over in my life; getting, in order give
1. Receiving is necessary and inevitable throughout our lives in order to survive, so why should we fight against it with negative emotional attachments or beliefs of hindering its influx in order to appear more humble to those we may never see again.
2. Getting more than enough to survive is needed to give back to others; which is the necessary counter-action to the previous, completing the circle and allowing the cycle of life to begin again, revolve, and evolve.
3. Such an eternal cycle of getting and giving reminds me of the transient nature of life; it is continually in flux, spinning off and expanding with the ever-changing distance and magnitude of an enormous arm belonging to our beloved galaxy.
As we enter this holiday season, I remember that the rich are not necessarily as evil as Mr. Dickens made them out to be; nor are they intrinsically good either, but certainly are in a position to be one capable of redistributing the wealth and thus restarting the cycle with an increased momentum.
Theory
I don’t believe that great art must be preceded by great suffering, I think it requires a great sensitivity to life as it truly is; all the tragedies as well as the triumphs; the depths of emotional loss and the highs of intellectual success; all experienced, noted, regurgitated, and articulated into an easily digested intellectual landscape capable of inciting reflection. Because I feel that the challenge should come from the ideas presented, not ideas presented in a format that’s challenging to understand.
