To have a ‘self’ means we are self-centered. Being self-centered—and therefore opposing ourselves to external things—we are anxious and worried about ourselves. We bristle quickly when the external environment opposes us; we are easily upset. And being self-centered, we are often confused. This is how most of us experience our lives.
‘Youth is full of sunshine and love. Youth is happy, because it has the ability to see beauty. When this ability is lost, wretched old age begins, decay, unhappiness.’
‘So age excludes the possibility of happiness?’
‘No, happiness excludes age’. Smiling, he bent his head forward, as if to hide it between his hunched shoulders. ‘Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.’
His smile, his attitude, his voice, reminded one of a quiet and serene boy.
— from Conversation with Kafka by Gustav Janouch, p. 30 (New Directions Publishing, 1971)
Thank you, Memory Green.
Art is neither a profession nor a hobby. Art is a Way of being.
Holly Lynton, May, 2004, from Mean Ceiling. Thank you, orioninacobweb.
The world is filled with invisible realities. But, if people do not see or hear, then these realities do not exist.
The artist seeks contact with his intuitive sense of the gods, but in order to create his work, he cannot stay in this seductive and incorporeal realm. He must return to the material world in order to do his work. It’s the artist’s responsibility to balance mystical communication and the labor of creation. I left Mephistopheles, the angels, and the remnants of our handmade world, saying, I choose Earth.
(Source: mythologyofblue)
Penguin Classics: Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Cover is a detail from “Baba Beaton”, 1926, by Cecil Beaton. Thank you, libraryland & bookcoverlove.
Luke Storms | New York City taken from The Empire State Building, Friday, July 1st, 2011.
Thomas Dybdahl | “One Day You’ll Dance For Me, New York City”
Alys - Central Park from the Ballerina Project.
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Beautiful. Thank you, ballerinaproject.
