That might be why I like it. Are you living life for the now, or for the ever-receding, never-to-be-reached destination?
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
That might be why I like it. Are you living life for the now, or for the ever-receding, never-to-be-reached destination?
Beautiful, simple idea. Dance or sing while the music plays!
I had a similar discussion just today about movies. The person was horrified (literally) that I read movie spoiler sites to know what the ending is and then go watch the movie. I don’t want to be anticipating an end, I want to see how they get there, how they tell the story and listen to the dialogue. When people go to watch a Shakespeare play, they’re going to see the performance, not the ending, because most have already seen or read it before.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/spoilers-dont-spoil-anything/
The trip is the fun part of life, not the destination. Even if you reach “the end”, what society says you should strive for, you still have to live after you get it. If there’s nothing to do after that, what’s point of living?
Life is more like the game “Perfection”, hurrying to try and do as much as you can before your time runs out. Some people get it done, others don’t. To borrow from Shakespeare again, the play’s the thing.
That’s a wonderful way of looking at life, assuming you have the choice to sing or dance. We don’t all live the privileged life shown in the cartoon.
Ah, but you can dance and sing everything. You can be in the darkest prison and the cruelest chains being starved and beaten. But still they can’t stop you from dancing and singing your misery. If you are miserable, you can be miserable with all your might!
I know this to be true because I have seen it being done, not because I am any kind of a saint.
I wish you joy and peace and would hope I would have the guts and brains to rescue you from your prison.
But while you are there they can’t stop you from dancing and singing unless they kill you.
Life has no meaning whatsoever. What a relief!
Watts was, of course, somewhat of a rogue and a fake. (Just like the rest of us?) He had some superstitions too, such as belief in astrology and homeopathy, though he didn’t take them that seriously. Oh, and he was alcoholic, smoked, and died young probably because of it.
A lot of people have set him up as some kind of saint or guru. He was nothing of the sort, and shouldn’t be taken seriously. In fact he was quite specific in telling his readers and listeners NOT to take him seriously. That’s a large part of his value. I find him worth re-reading and often do, but not as any kind of authority or saint.
that was great! My personal story of how I got here owes a lot to the work of Alan Watts. It was listening to his lectures and reading his books that led me to exposing the contradictory ideas at the heart of my thinking about the world. It was exposed so consistently with the his simple use of reason. Little if anything he said ever contradicted reality nor involved belief or articles of faith.
uncle frogy
Tobacco is poisonous crap, nicotine is a powerful contact insecticide and it turns out highly addictive. It kills people it damages every bodily function we have. While 58 is not really young nor is it really old either. It is how ever not a surprising age for a heavy smoker to die.,
Which has nothing to do with what he said.
There was something about him that was similar to Christopher Hitchens a flawed individual that tried to confront the truth. Probably was something to do with his British education
uncle frogy
Personally I am not in favour of spoilers because I have only one chance to see something or read it for the first time. I can and do re-read things and re-watch things and I can enjoy them, but it’s a different experience from the first time. I’d certainly appreciate knowledge going in to a movie as to whether it would be something I would enjoy (don’t like horror), or whether you needed something going in (3D glasses, that it’s part 3 of something I didn’t see part 1 and 2 of) but that’s different to actual spoilers.
I do know however that some people can’t actually enjoy things unless they know what’s going to happen and while I think that’s sad, that’s how they live and enjoy things.
For some people knowing the spoiler, that something specific happens, does spoil the event, because instead of enjoying the movie as it goes along, they are looking constantly for that event, and not enjoying the part of the movie that isn’t that event.
I’m not a South Park fan, but I thought I recognised the creators names there.
Oh, have always enjoyed Watts! Instead of going to a churchie on Sundays, I would listen to one of his recorded talks on the radio, decades ago.
No, Watts was not perfect. I don’t even know such a human exists. I do know Watts died of heart failure.
Anyway, I never thought the man was beyond reproach, but I do know that he wasn’t out to harm others intentionally, only to serve as a road sign pointing to alternative views. How boring this world would be if we didn’t have colorful folks around us. . . embracing the present.