New Year's Resolution:
In church yesterday, the priest gave a sermon about Mary, and it focused in part on her remarkable trust in God, but he also somehow managed to tie in Socrates's maxim "The unexamined life is one not worth living." I forget how he got there, but it's really unimportant.
I was browsing Wikiquote yesterday looking for a new quote for facebook. I ran into this one by Andre Gide, the French novelist: Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly.
I've done enough self-analysis over the past few years, and I think I know myself much better than I know other people. That should change. The unexamined life may be one not worth living, but the over-examined life is one you're not living.
Screw contemplation; I trust myself to believe that I'll make good decisions, and if I don't, I can fix most things. When I'm old and everyone else around me is boring, tedious and dull, I can be reflective, introspective, and explore deep questions. For now, when I'm often surrounded by interesting people, I don't really need those questions or even those hoped-for answers.
Basically, my New Year's resolution is to stop being J. Alfred Prufrock.
P.S. Martha Wainwright's album is really, really good. Maybe better than anything her brother (or father) has done.
I was browsing Wikiquote yesterday looking for a new quote for facebook. I ran into this one by Andre Gide, the French novelist: Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly.
I've done enough self-analysis over the past few years, and I think I know myself much better than I know other people. That should change. The unexamined life may be one not worth living, but the over-examined life is one you're not living.
Screw contemplation; I trust myself to believe that I'll make good decisions, and if I don't, I can fix most things. When I'm old and everyone else around me is boring, tedious and dull, I can be reflective, introspective, and explore deep questions. For now, when I'm often surrounded by interesting people, I don't really need those questions or even those hoped-for answers.
Basically, my New Year's resolution is to stop being J. Alfred Prufrock.
P.S. Martha Wainwright's album is really, really good. Maybe better than anything her brother (or father) has done.