Being Filled with Awe and Wonder?
I’m a city dweller and proud of it. I’m also quite lazy. These things combined illustrate my own personal truth, I actually don’t take that much pleasure in the great outdoors.The architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature”. I don’t spell it like that all.
It’s not that I’m not impressed by really spectacular scenery, I am, but my enjoyment of the beauty of even the most amazing views or sights is fleeting. Added to that, all these things usually involve walking some way, probably up a hill and as I say, I’m lazy. I’m not averse to a short walk in the woods, I enjoy the peace and quiet, but mostly, I’d say that it was quite nice, rather than awe inspiring.
I can get a lot more enthusiastic about beautiful modern architecture than I do about scenery. I’m passionate about travelling, but I’m much more interested in what people have done to a place, than the raw environment. But even then, it’s a simple curiousity that drives me, rather than seeking great inspiration.
On the other hand, if I want to change or heighten my mood, I listen to music. I have reasonably eclectic tastes ranging from thrash metal, through folk and mid 20th century avant garde classical stuff. It astounds me that there’s always something new and exciting to say. Just by listening to music I can be brought into a different state of mind, I can experience joy, happiness, sadness, anger and cathartic release. I’m with Nietzsche when he said “Without music, life would be a mistake”.
It seems somehow a bit pathetic (and certainly human-centric) to say that I believe in God but I spell it music, but really it’s true for me. I should probably be grateful that I can play a musical instrument and can create my own if I need to. I’m certainly grateful to be living since the advent of recording technology, as I’m experiencing probably the most music drenched environment that there’s been.
I’m sometimes surprised that not everyone is attached to music as I am, I guess that people can be inspired by all sorts of different things, that other people merely appreciate.
Image by wakalani
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Fear is the Cheapest Room in the House
Fear is the cheapest room in the house.
I would like to see you living in better conditions.
I haven’t really got anything to be afraid of. I’m not sure though, whether some fear isn’t endemic. Like when things are made safer, people just put themselves into more danger. Even when there is nothing really to fear, people can magnify the remaining risks into fears.
I’m a suffer of ophidiophobia - a fear of snakes. I don’t even like to look at pictures of them, and I’m not keen on having to write the word.
Fortunately for me, I live in England where the chances of bumping into a serpent, are let’s say, slim. I have been to more snake-filled countries, but I haven’t had the misfortune to bump into one. Which is just as well.
You know you can get those little bottles of vodka that have very small (dead) snakes inside? Someone once through one onto my lap, whereupon I froze in panic. I couldn’t bring myself to touch it to move it, but I also couldn’t cope with just leaving it there.
Even though I know that this fear is irrational, I secretly feel that it’s perfectly normal. After all, snakes are deadly creatures out to get me, aren’t they?
Since, despite all evidence to the contrary it seems normal to me to be afraid of snakes, I’ve actually got no intention of trying to get over this fear. I’m not so bothered by the way it restricts me on occasion, as there seem to be few benefits to overcoming my fear. Maybe I am living in the cheapest room in the house - but at least it’s snake free.
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The Pursuit of Happiness
Even though I’m English, I’m still objective enough to realise that one of the most important texts of the eighteenth century was the American Declaration of Independence. From the beginning, and in the phrase “we hold these truths to be self-evident” it speaks to our better nature, it is inclusive, and collective.
At the time, the ideas held in the Declaration of Independence were pretty radical - the ideas of human rights that have become expressed in various 20th century declarations were new and to some people disturbing. One of the characteristic features of the American declaration is that it holds that all men (not just Americans) have the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It is certainly true that in Western Europe we have taken to these rights like a duck to water. In the European Union, capital punishment is outlawed, and even in the most trigger happy of the more developed countries its use is reserved for the most serious of cases. Liberty, and by extension, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to a fair trial are the cornerstones of modern democracy.
The pursuit of happiness in the form of increased leisure time and material wealth, could be viewed as one of the myriad of benefits of the industrial revolution and the post-industrial world. But although I like my leisure time, and am not against increasing my own material wealth, I don’t think that these bring me true happiness.
Rather happiness comes, I think, with living a deeply fulfilling life. A fulfilled person occupies their time with worthwhile things - not just worthy things. They live a virtuous life. They may be religiously inclined or they may not, but they have values which they seek to put into practice.
Let us try to go for happiness and not wealth or endless leisure.
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