Friday, August 07, 2009

Random Thoughts

-It's 11:00 p.msih and this is a good time for bullet points

- John Coltrane, how can a man say so much without words?

- Why is pleasure to be found in depressing feelings, numbness and akward films?

- Do I like Woody Allen films becuase he oddly looks like my grandfather or becuase of the artsy and philosophical points of view he expresses?

- Twitter is a compulsion because we want others to feel as strongly about our lives as we do.
We think something is important and if only someone else will feel the same.

- mid-twenties is an odd time. I want to have a stable relationship even children, but I truly fear commitment and certainty in the future.

- I love Michael Brecker. I wish I could improvise on the saxophone.

- We are never truly happy. It is delusional to think so and laughter can be silenced by life's bitter trials.

- Who am I to talk about trials?

- Beautiful music sends shivers up my spine. Does everyone feel that?

- My favorite part of music? crescendi

- If I'm going to get married, my future wife is living her own life somewhere. Right Now.

- If patience is a virtue, why is immediate and resolute action so prized in our society?

- What if I fail?

- Money is far to important to be left in the hands of those who know what to do with it.

- I'd like to be a jazz bassist, but I lack the drive to practice and the ability to network.

- I want to play saxophone? here's why http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2U1MGX8SLU

2 comments:

Diggs said...

I sincerely disagree with your true happiness comment. I fervently believe it is a modus operandi.

I, too have seen bitter trials silence laughter. However, your argument rests on the primacy of one emotion (sadness) over another (happiness), but the opposite can also hold true. I have also seen elation, joy and laughter at a wake. A joke has the capacity of levity in a grave situation.

We then are left with a few major alternatives for the normal person (obviously certain biochemical and genetic factors can provide another possibility). First, it may be just as you say that a certain emotion ultimately holds sway over the other. However, I must confess that this does not present itself as ultimately true in my experiences. Again, I have seen both hold sway over the other in differing circumstances. And if it does not indeed present itself as plainly so, so that a specific emotion rules another, then I have a hard time believing it could then be universally so.

Instead, it must then either be circumstantial or positional. If circumstantial, then we can expect similar situations to precipitate similar responses. In which case, whether we are happy/sad or not is dependent upon the situation in life in which we find ourselves. But here again, we do not find this to be universal. In my work, I am with the less fortunate very regularly. Their dispositions vary greatly. In fact, I am occassionally amazed at how well disposed certain people are dispite their situation. And yet, I have others in enviable positions who are so poorly disposed to life you wonder how they even make it out of bed!

And so we come to how one approaches one's existence. Here, I believe we can find some traction. Those who seem to be, on the whole happy, seem oriented towards happiness. Conversely, those who seem unhappy on the whole also seem oriented towards unhappiness. It is indeed a mode of existence, a conscious way of living.

I do not claim that this holds universally true for all times. Indeed, humans will experience the whole range of emotions. However, there are those who will be disposed towards experiencing certain things in certain ways.

In short, I think you can be truly happy; it just depends on whether or not you will orient yourself that way (not as easy as we'd suppose), and whether we allow ourselves to be truly happy. Miss you, bud. Hope you are indeed, happy.

Harky said...

Whenever i am in doubt of the certainty of anything i think about GOD. He is certain of everything, and i am to place my trust and faith in HIM, therefore i am placing my trust and faith in an absolute certainty. If GOD is certain that he can turn a saul into a paul and build a church uppon that certainty, then all things truly are possible with HIM.
As for the saxaphone, that takes practice. ;) Keep on keeping on.