When the child was a child
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.
It walked with its arms swinging,
wanted the brook to be a river,
the river to be a torrent,
and this puddle to be the sea.
When the child was a child,
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.
it didn’t know that it was a child,
everything was soulful,
and all souls were one.
When the child was a child,
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.
it had no opinion about anything,
had no habits,
it often sat cross-legged,
took off running,
had a cowlick in its hair,
and made no faces when photographed.
When the child was a child,
It was the time for these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?
When did time begin, and where does space end?
Is life under the sun not just a dream?
Is what I see and hear and smell
not just an illusion of a world before the world?
Given the facts of evil and people.
does evil really exist?
How can it be that I, who I am,
didn’t exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?
It was the time for these questions:
Why am I me, and why not you?
Why am I here, and why not there?
When did time begin, and where does space end?
Is life under the sun not just a dream?
Is what I see and hear and smell
not just an illusion of a world before the world?
Given the facts of evil and people.
does evil really exist?
How can it be that I, who I am,
didn’t exist before I came to be,
and that, someday, I, who I am,
will no longer be who I am?
When the child was a child,
It choked on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding,
and on steamed cauliflower,
and eats all of those now, and not just because it has to.
It choked on spinach, on peas, on rice pudding,
and on steamed cauliflower,
and eats all of those now, and not just because it has to.
When the child was a child,
it awoke once in a strange bed,
and now does so again and again.
Many people, then, seemed beautiful,
and now only a few do, by sheer luck.
it awoke once in a strange bed,
and now does so again and again.
Many people, then, seemed beautiful,
and now only a few do, by sheer luck.
It had visualized a clear image of Paradise,
and now can at most guess,
could not conceive of nothingness,
and shudders today at the thought.
and now can at most guess,
could not conceive of nothingness,
and shudders today at the thought.
When the child was a child,
It played with enthusiasm,
and, now, has just as much excitement as then,
but only when it concerns its work.
It played with enthusiasm,
and, now, has just as much excitement as then,
but only when it concerns its work.
When the child was a child,
It was enough for it to eat an apple, … bread,
And so it is even now.
It was enough for it to eat an apple, … bread,
And so it is even now.
When the child was a child,
Berries filled its hand as only berries do,
and do even now,
Fresh walnuts made its tongue raw,
and do even now,
it had, on every mountaintop,
the longing for a higher mountain yet,
and in every city,
the longing for an even greater city,
and that is still so,
It reached for cherries in topmost branches of trees
with an elation it still has today,
has a shyness in front of strangers,
and has that even now.
It awaited the first snow,
And waits that way even now.
Berries filled its hand as only berries do,
and do even now,
Fresh walnuts made its tongue raw,
and do even now,
it had, on every mountaintop,
the longing for a higher mountain yet,
and in every city,
the longing for an even greater city,
and that is still so,
It reached for cherries in topmost branches of trees
with an elation it still has today,
has a shyness in front of strangers,
and has that even now.
It awaited the first snow,
And waits that way even now.
When the child was a child,
It threw a stick like a lance against a tree,
And it quivers there still today.
It threw a stick like a lance against a tree,
And it quivers there still today.
Song of Childhood - Peter Handke
“Beyond mere sadness, we were starting to feel trapped in a perpetual now (as our past receded and any sort of meaningful future became a logical impossibility), a sort of purgatory where you drank and tanned and played Tetris with the same ten guys until the end of time.”
—Ron Currie, Jr., God Is Dead
But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
Umberto Eco (Foucault's Pendulum)
It's an incredible con job when you think of it, to believe something now in exchange for life after death. Even corporations with all their reward systems don't try to make it posthumous.
Gloria Steinem
Man is the only animal that contemplates death, and also the only animal that shows any sign of doubt of its finality. -
William Ernest Hocking
" there is a place in the heart that will never be filled; a space. and even during the best moments, and the greatest times, we will know it.
charles bukowski
wow, it’s friday night, what are you going to do? just sit there?” well, yeah. because there’s nothing out there. it’s stupidity. stupid people mingling with stupid people. let them stupidify themselves.
charles bukowski
And while the flash of our beginning...
...has not yet traveled the light years into distance...
...has not yet been seen by planets deep within the other galaxies...
...we will disappear into the blackness of the space from which we came...
...destroyed as we began, in a burst of gas and fire.
The heavens are still and cold once more.
In all the immensity of our universe and the galaxies beyond...
...the Earth will not be missed.
Through the infinite reaches of space...
...the problems of man seem trivial and naive indeed.
And man, existing alone...
...seems himself an episode of little consequence.
- Rebel Without a Cause
Truth? We search and search. Many have opinions that are laws unto themselves but in trying to impose those laws on others truth probably walked right by laughing or crying, unnoticed.
Roger Pielechaty
Sometimes the best reason to get out of bed in the morning is knowing that someday you will not have to get out of bed in the morning.
- Alabama McLane
(It's A Wonderful Life)
If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.
— C.S. Lewis
LIFE APPEARS TO ME TOO SHORT TO BE SPENT IN NURSING ANIMOSITY, OR REGISTERING WRONGS. WE ARE, AND MUST BE, ONE AND ALL, BURDENED WITH FAULTS IN THIS WORLD.
- JANE EYRE
God does not play dice with the universe: He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Good Omens
True sanity is a complete freedom from chaos, and chaos is found in all aspects of life, therefore sanity is achieved only in death.
Sean Biglane
