(no subject)
Life is a narrowing funnel of choice. One begins with literally infinite possibilities, but every choice you make, even from birth, limits your potential. Every time you do one thing, you have not done a thousand other things, and you can never get those things back; you can only do them, if possible, in the future, and by doing so close off yet another thousand potentialities. A high school senior has the choice of doing nearly anything with life. A college student has slightly less choice. Someone in midlife with an established career has much less. What we can do with ourselves and with the world we inhabit becomes increasingly restricted with time, until death leaves us with no choice at all. It is impossible to escape from this reality.
Every moment wasted or spent counterproductively is exponentially tragic. Not only have you essentially eradicated a space in life, you've also eradicated a massive amount of potential from your life; a chance meeting with someone who could have been a close friend, a hit of inspiration to create a great work, a chance to do what you've always wanted to do.
We all make errors and we can never be perfect in our choices. We will all suffer terribly by our own hands and those of others. It is unavoidable. Yet many cannot accept this, and many retreat behind stark fear and apathy as a means of escape through non-choice. Anything that draws a shade over the cutting terror of the real world will suffice for such people.
Alternately, some people become attached to their mistakes and those of others. Suffering is worshipped as a sort of defiance against the incapability of escape from this system. They would like to think that suffering makes them notable, that somehow their pain, perceived or real, will bring them better fortune of its own accord, and of course it never does.
Life is something that is extraordinarily easy to waste. Decades can slip by some people without even any sort of acknowledgement that time is passing and that their range of options is narrowing. In the end, there is nothing inherently wrong with a wasted life- a dead person who has done nothing or made poor choices and a dead person who acted wisely and accomplished great things are quite equal in death. We do not live for what we will be after death, we live for the sublime joy that life offers us on occasion if we are poised to take it. Though that joy's nature differs from person to person, the uniting factor is that for all of us, it's really all we have.
Those who hope to escape, to find soothing in numbness or redemption in the glory of pain, deceive themselves. A certain degree of fear is necessary; a large amount of pain is the fate of all people. The only redemption to be had is the opportunity to recognize our increasingly limited field of possibilities, and to carefully use it to the ends we see as beneficial. This opportunity is fulfilled rarely even by the most dedicated. We are all dying from the day we are born, and when we voluntarily throw it away, we die twice as fast. When we recognize that life, intricate and beautiful, exists for its own sake, we make what time we have worthwhile more often than not.
-C
Something that lasts
Something that ends
Something you use; only the greatest transcend
Something you've lost
Something you've found
Something you hate and bury deep underground
And you find it and love it
And swear it won't be destroyed
But you cannot command it
And that's the truth you avoid
Whence went the fire when the fire went out?
Whence went the song when the music stopped playing?
And whence went humanity after they died?
They go nowhere, but you doubt
And that's the fear you're betraying
Something you wrong
Something you kill
Something of beauty, if only you could stay still
Something that burns
Something that feeds
Something that can nurture while making you bleed
It's everywhere and nowhere
Depends on how hard you try
And you can make your life fair
Until it's your time to die
Whence went the fire when the fire went out?
Whence went the song when the music stopped playing?
And whence went humanity after they died?
They go nowhere, but you doubt
And that's the fear you're betraying
The same flame that burns you can keep you warm
-The TTP Project "Avowal"
Every moment wasted or spent counterproductively is exponentially tragic. Not only have you essentially eradicated a space in life, you've also eradicated a massive amount of potential from your life; a chance meeting with someone who could have been a close friend, a hit of inspiration to create a great work, a chance to do what you've always wanted to do.
We all make errors and we can never be perfect in our choices. We will all suffer terribly by our own hands and those of others. It is unavoidable. Yet many cannot accept this, and many retreat behind stark fear and apathy as a means of escape through non-choice. Anything that draws a shade over the cutting terror of the real world will suffice for such people.
Alternately, some people become attached to their mistakes and those of others. Suffering is worshipped as a sort of defiance against the incapability of escape from this system. They would like to think that suffering makes them notable, that somehow their pain, perceived or real, will bring them better fortune of its own accord, and of course it never does.
Life is something that is extraordinarily easy to waste. Decades can slip by some people without even any sort of acknowledgement that time is passing and that their range of options is narrowing. In the end, there is nothing inherently wrong with a wasted life- a dead person who has done nothing or made poor choices and a dead person who acted wisely and accomplished great things are quite equal in death. We do not live for what we will be after death, we live for the sublime joy that life offers us on occasion if we are poised to take it. Though that joy's nature differs from person to person, the uniting factor is that for all of us, it's really all we have.
Those who hope to escape, to find soothing in numbness or redemption in the glory of pain, deceive themselves. A certain degree of fear is necessary; a large amount of pain is the fate of all people. The only redemption to be had is the opportunity to recognize our increasingly limited field of possibilities, and to carefully use it to the ends we see as beneficial. This opportunity is fulfilled rarely even by the most dedicated. We are all dying from the day we are born, and when we voluntarily throw it away, we die twice as fast. When we recognize that life, intricate and beautiful, exists for its own sake, we make what time we have worthwhile more often than not.
-C
Something that lasts
Something that ends
Something you use; only the greatest transcend
Something you've lost
Something you've found
Something you hate and bury deep underground
And you find it and love it
And swear it won't be destroyed
But you cannot command it
And that's the truth you avoid
Whence went the fire when the fire went out?
Whence went the song when the music stopped playing?
And whence went humanity after they died?
They go nowhere, but you doubt
And that's the fear you're betraying
Something you wrong
Something you kill
Something of beauty, if only you could stay still
Something that burns
Something that feeds
Something that can nurture while making you bleed
It's everywhere and nowhere
Depends on how hard you try
And you can make your life fair
Until it's your time to die
Whence went the fire when the fire went out?
Whence went the song when the music stopped playing?
And whence went humanity after they died?
They go nowhere, but you doubt
And that's the fear you're betraying
The same flame that burns you can keep you warm
-The TTP Project "Avowal"