Revenge

“The best revenge in life is massive success.”

– Frank Sinatra

It has been a while between posts but here we go again.

Frank Sinatra sums this up well – if anyone has ever told you that you cannot do something, ignoring their negativity and doing it anyway is overwhelmingly satisfying. 

I always want to move forward, but moving forward can be tiring…..nothing kick starts you more effectively than someone telling you what you cannot do.

Balance

A reminder that balance if often important.

Spirited Away

It is exam time now.  During this period I never cease to be amazed by how we all seem to hide behind consumption.

Food, sugar, coffee, cigarettes, movie breaks – the list goes on.  Everyone seems to have their own consumption based ritual of escapism and comfort.    I often hear people (myself included) saying ‘once exams are over I’ll get back on track’ or ‘it helps me study’.

But when there is no more study left to do, how many of us really stop consuming?

This continued consumption can be comforting.  Maybe you think it is aiding one aspect of your life. You are safe; it is a veil protecting you from other areas you may be unhappy with.

This consumption turns into life.  Work, consume, repeat.  It becomes certain.  Thought of breaking the cycle becomes uncomfortable.  Risky.

To take some words from Janet Rand, don’t be chained by your certitude.  Forfeiting freedom to consumption is bad for the soul.  For me, I know it makes me feel sick with longing.  I feel trapped.  But in reality, this is just a state of mind – all it takes is a simple change.

Set your spirit free.

Rain Dance

Creative and free.

Devils

We live with them everyday, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Rage

“Fuck off with your sofa units and string green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.”

-Tyler Durden, Fight Club

People always tell you that anger is bad.  Anger consumes you.  You cannot be successful if you are angry.

I remember when I could be solely and entirely defined by anger and looking back, it wasted a lot of time.

However, sometimes you just feel rage.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Experiencing genuine rage is beautiful.  You can channel it, give in to it, simply feel it….it does not have to define you.  You are alive.

Today I woke up angry.  I couldn’t put my finger on a particular reason, maybe several things grinding away at me…at first I was annoyed by the return of what I thought was long gone rage.  But then I channelled it.  Into the gym.  Into study.  Into writing. 

Everything I did today, I was better at, because I was able to grab that rage and make it work for me.  This made me think about Tyler Durden’s warped embrace of anarchy.  Maybe balance is overrated.  Maybe it is the balanced people who are the afflicted.  After all when we look at the most successful people in the world, attaching the label of ‘balance’ to them is often impossible.

Perhaps this is just a darker day for me.  But the fact remains, I was better at everything today.

To quote Fight Club once again, I felt like destroying something beautiful.

That is the beauty.

Nullus Desidirium

To latin buffs out there, I apologise for probably messing up the title here – No regrets.

Make your move before you are ready.

I am a classic over-thinker.  I will over-think to the point where I simply cannot sleep.  Past events will abhor me.  The future will concern me.  Peace will elude me.

I used to hate this.  An unnecessary curse, determined to keep me unhappy.  Maybe, at times, I still hate it.  But it is a good example of internal dialogue management.  Constant obsession with thinking things through can hold you back. 

If you create ‘regret’ because you didn’t waste time waiting to feel ready, then that regret is more like liberation. 

How many things do you regret not doing because you fell for the attractiveness of playing it safe in life?  I have a list.  I don’t want to add to it.    

Don’t live low risk.  Low risk is not going to help you become your best, so raise the bar.  The one thing that makes this hard is fear.  Fear of failure. Fear of rejection.   Accepting that failure is okay is the first step towards living life freely.

Professionally, personally, socially….you may raise the bar and fail.

So what.

Less Materia/More Anima

Simply, live.

Art

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal
the artist is art’s aim. The critic is he who can translate into another
manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without
being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated.
For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things
mean only beauty.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban
seeing his own face in a glass.

The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of
Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man
forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality
of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true
can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical
sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.
From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art
of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s
craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work
is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree,
the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man
for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it.
The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one
admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.

OSCAR WILDE

The All Revealing Haircut

People say that the eyes are windows to the soul, but what about hair?

I find it interesting that people  seem to immediately make a judgement call about someone based on their haircut.  Apparently hair can convey how likely you are to not be a failure…

Different haircuts seem to have different stereotypical attachments.  I’m not going to go on too much about this.  All I will say is that I find it irritating when people think they know all about you based on an external characteristic.

Something as simple as a haircut can build a wall between people.   Is this a good thing?

Probably not.