the reason i like to sleep..

The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep. (E. J. Cossman)

complicated

"I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated."
- Poul Anderson

-- reminds me of an old hypothesis of mine: only few people can allow themselves declaring problems as 'easy': the ones that have no clue about it at all and therefore can not estimate the difficulties involved, or the experts who know everything related to it.
i feel that for everyone else somewhere on the path from one of these states to the other anderson's quote applies very well. --

abstraction

"A map is not the territory it represents, but if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness."
[Alford Korzybski, 1958]

I came across this quote when writing a seminar thesis on systems theory. Can't help to be intrigued by it, just pondering in how many ways this could be a valid statement. Maybe for models of things, personal world views, experience, all kinds of logical abstractions..

Thoughts picked up on the way

Komik ist Tragik in Spiegelschrift...

[Freundeskreis - A.N.N.A]

I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations, no, no
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am a soul that lives within

[India.Arie - I am not my hair]

the aim of music

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.

Mit aller Musik soll Gott geehrt und die Menschen erfreut werden. Wenn man Gott mit seiner Musik nicht ehrt, ist die Musik nur ein teuflischer Lärm und Krach

— J.S. Bach

10th December

"I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought, nor what I liked"

[CS. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters]

about life

"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to
ask, "Compared to what?"" -- Sydney Harris

land unter

Wenn einem das Wasser bis zum Hals steht, sollte man den Kopf nicht hängen lassen."

[Karl Valentin]

Flieh deinen Schatten nicht

Es war einmal ein Mann, den verstimmte der Anblick seines eigenen Schattens so sehr, der war so unglücklich über seine eigenen Schritte, daß er beschloß, sie hinter sich zu lassen. Er sage sich: Ich laufe ihnen einfach davon.

So stand er auf und lief davon. Aber jedesmal, wenn er seinen Fuß aufsetzte, hatte er wieder einen Schritt getan, und sein Schatten folgte ihm mühelos. Er sagte zu sich: Ich muß schneller laufen. Also lief er schneller und schneller, lief so lange, bis er tot zu Boden sank. Wäre er einfach in den Schatten eines Baumes getreten, so wäre er seinen eigenen Schatten losgeworden, und hätte er sich hingesetzt, so hätte es keine Schritte mehr gegeben. Aber darauf kam er nicht.

Tschuang-tse, in: Sinfonie für einen Seevogel und andere Texte des Tschuang-tse, hrsg. v. Thomas Merton, Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1973, S. 130.

Gefunden auf http://www.zum.de/Faecher/kR/BW/bibellit/texte/t080.htm

Translation will follow soon.. couldn't find the English version so far.. click for other texts and information about the author

about time

"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."
Louis Hector Berlioz

about truth

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
Oscar Wilde

But nothing compares to you

I personally think that unneccessarily comparing oneself to others is one of the main sources of people's unhappiness. However, I never manage to make up my mind in wondering if on some occasions it is a necessary tool for motivation to change oneself. It's probably about the reasons we have for comparing ourselves as well as the grounds on which we base our comparisons (i.e. if it is things we can change or not).

Regarding things we can not change I found some nice quotes (as usual I apologize for my rather crude translation, it's not so poetic but I still hope it catches the essence).

The first one is by Abbas Paphnutios

"An welchen Ort du auch hinkommst,
vergleiche dich nicht mit anderen
und du wirst Ruhe finden."

[Wherever place you go to,
do not compare yourself to others
and you will find peace]

The other one is by Charles de Montesquieu

"Wenn man nur glücklich sein wollte, wäre es ja bald getan:
aber man will ja glücklicher als die anderen sein,
und das ist fast immer schwierig,
weil wir die anderen für glücklicher halten,
als sie wirklich sind."

[If one only wanted to be happy, it would be an easy task:
but one always wants to be more happy than others,
and this is quite difficult
as we tend to take the others for happier
than they really are.]

Both I think point out a spectrum of thought which I find thrilling and worth to be tried in real life. Happy experimenting!

Kalendersprüche

Wenn du ruhig leben willst,
darfst du nicht alles sagen,
was du weißt,
und nicht alles glauben,
was du hörst.
(Mong Dsi, 372-289 v. Chr.)


Wir müssen von Zeit zu Zeit
eine Rast einlegen und warten,
bis unsere Seelen uns
wieder eingeholt haben.
(Indianische Weisheit)

pazienza....

la pazienza è la virtù dei forti


(patience is the virtue of the strong - italian saying)

sadly i'm still failing... ;) i wonder though what they say about people that keep trying..

relating to people

very often i've observed people noting on someone being too proud and therefore not being able to relate with people in the right way. for sure this happens often enough, but taking oneself for better than some other person is not the only way inhibiting a good relationship between them.
also the opposite, namely feeling too self conscious and less worthy than someone else, has really bad consequences, as obviously also under these conditions a relationship amongst equals is not possible.
in the first case, the proud person often tends to not take the other one seriously and might presume that their acting is only incomprehensible to them as the other person's motives are too stupid and plain as to bother with them. however, as can be seen often enough, this is quite not true.
with self-consciousness, ususally people devalue their own talents and identity, because they prefer to admire someone as often this is easier than focussing on the real reasons why they couldnt gain confidence in themselves. however, very often also this way leads to frustration, as people tend to feel resentful to others that miraculously always fail to see and appreciate their talents.
The solution to the problem of how to found a healthy relationship towards others can be found in a bible quote: >> "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."<<-Matthew 22:37-40
Even for the non-believers I think this quotation bears acceptable wisdom. The first part brings to mind that people themselves are not the omnipotent power nor the most important entity on earth and therefore have some responsibility for their actions.
The second then states directly how a good relationship can be formed with others: By - first of all - loving your neighbour, accepting them as they are. But - and this to me seems crucial - it also says to love yourself. Neither more nor less than the others. There lies the trick which would resolve both issues mentioned above. On the basis of this balanced appreciation neither the pity of the proud for the stupid, nor the self depreciation of the self-conscious could grow as to threaten equal relationships.

some borrowed wisdom

a train never goes faster than it's last car.

[a truth heard from martins]

Does time fly?

I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies!
-- Lane Smith, quoted in "Who's News", Time for Kids, September 25, 1998

writing papers

Marija says: writing papers is like going to the dentist
it never ends
it is never fun to do it
but once it is over you feel great

(so that would be settled...)

ask or not?

There is a saying 'Who asks is a fool for five minutes. Who does not is one forever.'

I wonder if that is true. If you regard only the level of information, the assumption might hold, supposing you could not have drawn it from other sources. However, I think there might be questions that leave you quite unprotected to people's judgment about you and they might get you wrong. So what makes a fool a fool? The fact of not knowing something or the fact that others take them for one?

About happiness

J'ai décidé d'être heureux, c'est excellent pour la santé. (Voltaire)

Die deutsche Version gefällt mir auch:

Weil es für die Gesundheit zuträglich ist, habe ich beschlossen glücklich zu sein.

:)