Walking on a Dream

HOW CAN I EXPLAIN? Basically some people (my parents) would like me to adopt a rigid plan for the rest of my future. And it makes sense, I can't live at home forever, and who wouldn't want to see a young person seriously pursue success?

I just can't wrap my head around all the ambitious hunger and eagerness I'm supposed to be exhibiting. I would like to be better at planning out a course for myself, so I don't end up causing a lot of detours (as i have been doing) I just don't sweat over the whole failure thing. It's not phasing me as much as it should.

I feel like we are striving for ultimate pinnacle of prosperity and happiness and I've already got a mansion in my head. I feel as though success is a mental state. It's internal. Like the story of that guy what's his name? Sisyphus! Basically he was an ancient Greek character who was sentenced to push a rock up a hill as it would perpetually roll back down and he would do this continually until-- forever. 

(Sounds like a lot of 9-5's out there.)  Anyway, Sisyphus enjoys his punishment and it's therefore no longer a punishment. What I'm saying is whatever I end up doing with my life I will be successful because I am content. 

Also, I try not to anticipate the future too much because then I'll totally neglect the present. This notion is really well put in a song called Walking on a Dream by a band named Empire of the Sun. (This song is currently the most played on my Itunes list) 

"We are always running for the thrill of it.... always pushing up the hill, searching for the thrill of it/ Never looking down I'm just in awe of what's in front of me..."

Don't put so much pressure on yourself to become successful by worldly definition. Do what you love and if you can't,  love what you do.

Misfortune is relative to what you want;

If you don't want anything more than what you have, then you already have everything you want. 

The Lie that Makes us Realize the Truth

MY PHILOSOPHY CLASS was reading BOOK X of Plato's The Republic last week and I had a bone to pick about Plato's views on visual art and poetry.

Basically, the idea is that Art is thrice removed from Reality; Reality being the original form or CONCEPT of something.

Only God or The Creator can create Reality. The example in the text is a bed. The concept of the bed, it's use and purpose, is its Reality.

Second to Reality is the actual tangible thing. Man creates things such as a carpenter building a bed in this sense. Every bed made is just a copy of the true Reality of The Bed.

And thirdly comes the arts, because Art is an imitation of things. According to Plato, it is least significant because it only captures the image of something and not the Concept or Reality. In this instance, a painting of a bed is an example of art being a representation of the appearance of something.

Plato wanted to rid the world of Poets and Artists and Tragedists because he thought they distracted people from the ultimate reality. I differed with this whole concept personally. I am a consumer of Poetry and Art and I appreciate them as vehicles of emotional communication. Which in my opinion is not a deterrent from truth but a way to discern what you want your Truth to be.

IF ART AND POETRY WERE just a simple imitation of the Truth, then I might understand Plato's condemning of it. But a lot of Concepts can be derived through Art. Pablo Picasso's Guernica is a depiction of the Spanish Civil War. It's kind of an abstract painting, but it is a portrayal nonetheless of profound emotions, which to me, are just as valid as rationalism and the search for Truth.

Guernica Pablo Picasso (1937)