張學友, 真情流露
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZStoR9wYiNs
today as i crossed the road to my workplace, i looked up at the sky and realised that i was alright.
something had been taken out of me, but there was nothing that needed to be made good.
i suppose that's what life is... every little day, every little thing, with every little step. good or bad, every little little.
did nothing really need to be made good? maybe, mayhaps.
last sunday as little coby snuggled in my arms, i felt all was right. i suppose family does that.
one moves on as one does. just like in forrest gump... peas and carrots, peas and carrots.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
CXLI - it's pretty hard
陳慧琳, 誰願放手
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OhD5nEnf2g
來這年這一天這地
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OhD5nEnf2g
來這年這一天這地
重見曾似相識的你
笑得輕鬆中帶傷悲
談你談我的新趣味
無法忘記當天的美
你的關心不過演戲
Saturday, May 11, 2013
CXL - okay. okay.
"maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life... we'll always have paris..."
this is the aftermath.
i now know that i do not and never will need another person's sympathy, no matter how desolate. this is fair. many are unconsoled in this world.
in my weakness i put to myself some consolations as i imagined receiving them. that is far enough. every day i used another thing, myself. so be it. nights i spoke to dead men. that much is also true.
this is a new day.
i have struggled to uphold a destiny i believed in. that was certainly foolish, but fools have a place in my world. i have fought well, and lost well. i am not a lesser man. that is sufficient.
mark it as a new day.
God willing.
this is the aftermath.
i now know that i do not and never will need another person's sympathy, no matter how desolate. this is fair. many are unconsoled in this world.
in my weakness i put to myself some consolations as i imagined receiving them. that is far enough. every day i used another thing, myself. so be it. nights i spoke to dead men. that much is also true.
this is a new day.
i have struggled to uphold a destiny i believed in. that was certainly foolish, but fools have a place in my world. i have fought well, and lost well. i am not a lesser man. that is sufficient.
mark it as a new day.
God willing.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
CXXXIX - no tears
michael stipes, in the sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix77YY2ggjg&t=1m28s
you will haunt me in my obscure moments.
i think that is the best that can be done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix77YY2ggjg&t=1m28s
you will haunt me in my obscure moments.
i think that is the best that can be done.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
CXXXVII - of all the gin joints...
as i rounded the corner and it hit me i thought, you've got to be joking.
a dream that makes you depressed when you wake up is basically a nightmare.
dazed, lifeless, now the sound of a man losing something. something like a destiny. or one he believed in. no difference, i guess.
no... you've got to be joking. oh, hi. yes, hi. my friend's having a birthday here, inside. no, don't bother. alright, see you.
pooushhhfft. can't really function.
saturday. dinner. i can't think of more than one we had.
i thought about it. maybe it wasn't destined. maybe someone else was better than me, for you. but that was rough.
boy. i think i owe it to myself to have a few drinks.
"... i remember every detail. the germans wore grey. you wore blue."
a dream that makes you depressed when you wake up is basically a nightmare.
dazed, lifeless, now the sound of a man losing something. something like a destiny. or one he believed in. no difference, i guess.
no... you've got to be joking. oh, hi. yes, hi. my friend's having a birthday here, inside. no, don't bother. alright, see you.
pooushhhfft. can't really function.
saturday. dinner. i can't think of more than one we had.
i thought about it. maybe it wasn't destined. maybe someone else was better than me, for you. but that was rough.
boy. i think i owe it to myself to have a few drinks.
"... i remember every detail. the germans wore grey. you wore blue."
Thursday, May 2, 2013
CXXXVI - a question we should all ask
video of the week: hitchens, dennett, dawkins, harris, a discussion on religion and atheism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUg-1NCCowc
there are so many wonderful moments in this discussion. what i really like about the discussion these four have is that the intellectual approach each has is unique, and the discourse they share is deftly receptive, functionally progressive and formally intelligent. wonderful. i admit, i have a man-crush on sam harris. after the clip ended i immediately went to bookdepository.com to buy, "the end of faith" and, "god is not great". how couldn't i, really.
there is an underlying meta-issue in this discussion that intrigues me. paraphrasing, what dennett said, at about the 55 minute mark, was, "i ask myself seriously whether there is some truth in this world that if i knew, i would be better off keeping to myself. to just let the world go on without knowledge of this truth." the specific issue he had in mind at that point was, of all things, the possible environmental impact a criticism of free will could have. he went on, "i think that's a good question we all should ask." further on in the discussion, they considered the related questions, whether they wanted religion to end, whether they wished to see the churches empty on sunday, or alternatively, whether they would not rather leave room for the sacred in man's contemplations, in the form of a "benign" religion (generally, a tolerant, harmless, aesthetic-only religion). and they sort of wavered a little there. they had different answers: hitchens, slightly bemused, liked the idea of arguing against religion so much that he professed preference for religion not to end; dawkins rather preferred to clear the way for man's intellectualisation of the natural world; dennett suggested that a bit of the sacred might at the very least save man from triviality; and harris, agreeing (i guess) with dennett, segued into a discussion of religious inspiration for the aesthetics. i may have got the last two a bit mixed up, but that's more or less it. and later on they ask, is it better to have false consolations, or not?
so the basic question is ultimately this; are religious promises (i think it betrays a preference if the term "false consolations" is used) or a rationalist-centric worldview better?
there's a slightly condescending premise in this question, which i think you may well have to excuse me for. but it is, to follow dennett, an important question. and i think this is an opportune point to mention that i find dennett's intellectual humility extremely admirable. so to begin to answer the question, one must, at least, consider humanity sympathetically, pragmatically, discerningly. in other words, in situ. is it better for the common man (with all his plight, struggles and suffering) to be consoled, heartened and inspired by religious promises, or is it better to re-fashion man's worldview in truth, intellectual honesty and rationalism? put another way, are there allegories kind enough to be spared criticism? i may have to answer this at another time.
and there's another critical issue, viz, what to make of this cognitive dissonance that quite intellectual christians have, between the things they (rationally) examine from monday to friday, and the things they believe in on sunday. as hitchens fairly points out, we do each practice (and tolerate) a fair measure of cognitive dissonance in our daily lives, but the key question remains, what the tension is that this state of affairs causes to our perspectives.
personally, my answer to this is in the categorisation re-enumerated in luke 10:27, "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." i have considered this verse to be the path, my path: my soul believes that God exists, and with all my soul, i love him. therefore what remains is for me to find out how i can love the Lord with all my heart and with all my strength and with all my mind. i admit, i can't imagine how i could love the Lord with all my heart and strength. but my mind will try. it may have to brave the dark side a little, though, and not without a certain amount of relish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUg-1NCCowc
there are so many wonderful moments in this discussion. what i really like about the discussion these four have is that the intellectual approach each has is unique, and the discourse they share is deftly receptive, functionally progressive and formally intelligent. wonderful. i admit, i have a man-crush on sam harris. after the clip ended i immediately went to bookdepository.com to buy, "the end of faith" and, "god is not great". how couldn't i, really.
there is an underlying meta-issue in this discussion that intrigues me. paraphrasing, what dennett said, at about the 55 minute mark, was, "i ask myself seriously whether there is some truth in this world that if i knew, i would be better off keeping to myself. to just let the world go on without knowledge of this truth." the specific issue he had in mind at that point was, of all things, the possible environmental impact a criticism of free will could have. he went on, "i think that's a good question we all should ask." further on in the discussion, they considered the related questions, whether they wanted religion to end, whether they wished to see the churches empty on sunday, or alternatively, whether they would not rather leave room for the sacred in man's contemplations, in the form of a "benign" religion (generally, a tolerant, harmless, aesthetic-only religion). and they sort of wavered a little there. they had different answers: hitchens, slightly bemused, liked the idea of arguing against religion so much that he professed preference for religion not to end; dawkins rather preferred to clear the way for man's intellectualisation of the natural world; dennett suggested that a bit of the sacred might at the very least save man from triviality; and harris, agreeing (i guess) with dennett, segued into a discussion of religious inspiration for the aesthetics. i may have got the last two a bit mixed up, but that's more or less it. and later on they ask, is it better to have false consolations, or not?
so the basic question is ultimately this; are religious promises (i think it betrays a preference if the term "false consolations" is used) or a rationalist-centric worldview better?
there's a slightly condescending premise in this question, which i think you may well have to excuse me for. but it is, to follow dennett, an important question. and i think this is an opportune point to mention that i find dennett's intellectual humility extremely admirable. so to begin to answer the question, one must, at least, consider humanity sympathetically, pragmatically, discerningly. in other words, in situ. is it better for the common man (with all his plight, struggles and suffering) to be consoled, heartened and inspired by religious promises, or is it better to re-fashion man's worldview in truth, intellectual honesty and rationalism? put another way, are there allegories kind enough to be spared criticism? i may have to answer this at another time.
and there's another critical issue, viz, what to make of this cognitive dissonance that quite intellectual christians have, between the things they (rationally) examine from monday to friday, and the things they believe in on sunday. as hitchens fairly points out, we do each practice (and tolerate) a fair measure of cognitive dissonance in our daily lives, but the key question remains, what the tension is that this state of affairs causes to our perspectives.
personally, my answer to this is in the categorisation re-enumerated in luke 10:27, "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." i have considered this verse to be the path, my path: my soul believes that God exists, and with all my soul, i love him. therefore what remains is for me to find out how i can love the Lord with all my heart and with all my strength and with all my mind. i admit, i can't imagine how i could love the Lord with all my heart and strength. but my mind will try. it may have to brave the dark side a little, though, and not without a certain amount of relish.
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