". . .nihilistic pessimism and rationalistic optimism fail in their effort to juggle away the bitter truth of sacrifice: they also eliminate all reasons for wanting it. Someone told a young invalid who wept because she had to leave her home, her occupations, and her whole past life, "Get cured. The rest has no importance." "But if nothing has any importance," she answered, "what good is it to get cured?"
She was right. In order for this world to have any importance, in order for our undertaking to have a meaning and to be worthy of sacrifices, we must affirm the concrete and particular thickness of this world and the individual reality of our projects and ourselves. This is what democratic societies understand. . . "
-Simone De Beauvoir
I think I'll be taking a couple dance classes this fall. . along with the chemistry, computer programming. . . maybe physics. Maybe technical writing or rhetoric. It's funny how much of life is about figuring out which cliffs we respectively need to jump off of.
4 comments:
It's also really important at least have some idea of how high that cliff is...and what's waiting at the bottom.
But you know that =) and very glad am I that you do...
I've just known enough people who didn't... I believe that they called themselves passionate. Going at something blindly and with wild abandon often shows a lack of understanding of consequences and meaning.
I actually disagree.
You don't need to know how high, or what comes next--just that it's what you need to jump off.
Blindness and wild abandon are not the same as following through on your best guess with volition and commitment.
Hrm...
Allow me to mend my statement. Using analogies doesn't always seem to work for me...
It's important to try to know what you're doing...and why. Knowing why you need to move on at least gives you the idea of what you need to not be doing. That is a valid direction.
I guess what I'm really trying to say is... think before you jump. I have known many many many people who don't do that, and they get very confused and upset where they end up.
Does that make more sense?
enough.
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