That reminds me of one of my favorite books...tenaya_owlcatJuly 27 2005, 13:19:33 UTC
Assassin's Apprentice has a scene with the main character trying to draw a puppy. He finally realizes that it's the shadows around the puppy that help define its shape. As much as we should focus on the light, we must not forget that the shadows help define us by our place in them, by our strength in being ourselves in the middle of them.
Re: That reminds me of one of my favorite books...koinegeekJuly 27 2005, 14:42:45 UTC
Interesting. I'll have to check that book out.
Without shadows, we couldn't notice contours on the surface of an object. This also reminds me of something I read a while back about all objects having fuzzy boundaries, that the closer you get to a surface, the more you notice that the surface isn't flat. At the atomic level, it gets stranger since you have clouds of electrons constantly in motion which blur the boundaries. Of course, if it weren't for these fuzzy boundaries, we'd have no friction. And no friction means no fun, as my physics instructor used to say.
"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
--MacBeth Act V, Scene 5.--
"If life is a shadow, what is it a shadow of?"Isn't life merely a shadow of things that were and things that will be? This life is transitory, a brief flash between one world and the next. As we 'strut and fret [our] hour upon the stage', we are that walking shadow, the poor player, who's antics upon the stage are a mere mimicry of the greater life beyond the theater. There may be moments of greatness upon the stage, but they pale in comparison to that which we only shadow. And when our hour is past, our part is taken by others; we step off the stage, leave the theater, and step out into the world at last
( ... )
Well, as that segment of MacBeth is one of my favorite quotes (as evidenced in my LJ page name), I've pondered it on and off for years. I'm sure the analogy is older than Shakespeare, but he makes use of it in several places-- "All the world's a stage", for instance. It's one way of describing our journey through life-- certainly not the only way.
And yes, Evangelion's last few episodes also address that point, albeit in a more surreal way. The world is what we make of it. One of the gifts given to man is the ability to choose our own way through life; to make our own destiny, if you will. The trick is to use that choice in the right way. But we write the play that we perform-- noone writes it for us.
Yeah, I recognized that verse as your LJ page name :) MacBeth is quite full of such quotes and thoughts. May I ask, who has done your favorite portrayal of MacBeth?
At times, I wonder if God lets certain things happen to see how we react from it. I often wonder how His viewpoint is, outside of our space-time fabric. Is that fabric continually changing in his eyes, our choices causing a temporal resonance? Do the effects of spiritual warfare also change the fabric?
An interesting viewpoint that I recently read was that God and His angels are outside of our space-time, but Lucifer and his minions were thrown out of heaven and into our space-time, thus unable to move in time but still able to move at will spatially.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Colossians 2:17
*** I have always enjoyed playing with shadows. Making things larger or smaller or funnier. Puppet shadows on walls, etc. And while you always knew they had no substance, there was always the imaginative thought of "What if..." Scared myself silly sometimes.
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Without shadows, we couldn't notice contours on the surface of an object. This also reminds me of something I read a while back about all objects having fuzzy boundaries, that the closer you get to a surface, the more you notice that the surface isn't flat. At the atomic level, it gets stranger since you have clouds of electrons constantly in motion which blur the boundaries. Of course, if it weren't for these fuzzy boundaries, we'd have no friction. And no friction means no fun, as my physics instructor used to say.
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*snickers at physics references* ;)
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Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
--MacBeth Act V, Scene 5.--
"If life is a shadow, what is it a shadow of?"Isn't life merely a shadow of things that were and things that will be? This life is transitory, a brief flash between one world and the next. As we 'strut and fret [our] hour upon the stage', we are that walking shadow, the poor player, who's antics upon the stage are a mere mimicry of the greater life beyond the theater. There may be moments of greatness upon the stage, but they pale in comparison to that which we only shadow. And when our hour is past, our part is taken by others; we step off the stage, leave the theater, and step out into the world at last ( ... )
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Very interesting stage analogy. Brings to mind the final series episode of Evangelion, among other things.
We don't get a dress-rehearsal in life, though I do believe that it actually is a dress-rehearsal for what comes after :)
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And yes, Evangelion's last few episodes also address that point, albeit in a more surreal way. The world is what we make of it. One of the gifts given to man is the ability to choose our own way through life; to make our own destiny, if you will. The trick is to use that choice in the right way. But we write the play that we perform-- noone writes it for us.
Reply
At times, I wonder if God lets certain things happen to see how we react from it. I often wonder how His viewpoint is, outside of our space-time fabric. Is that fabric continually changing in his eyes, our choices causing a temporal resonance? Do the effects of spiritual warfare also change the fabric?
An interesting viewpoint that I recently read was that God and His angels are outside of our space-time, but Lucifer and his minions were thrown out of heaven and into our space-time, thus unable to move in time but still able to move at will spatially.
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*doh!* *groan*
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Colossians 2:17
***
I have always enjoyed playing with shadows. Making things larger or smaller or funnier. Puppet shadows on walls, etc. And while you always knew they had no substance, there was always the imaginative thought of "What if..." Scared myself silly sometimes.
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Heh, it's been ages since I've played shadow puppets. Too bad I don't have a flashlight here at work :-)
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