This is just a reminder to myself to evaluate the relationships I am maintaining in my life. Are they nourishing relationships or am I giving time out of obligation?
2012.09.09 On Speaking Wisely
You speak words, and they alter the universe. By merely speaking you can create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse.
2012.08.29 On Making Enemies
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” – Winston Churchill
I stand for integrity and honesty. I will not back down from holding and giving the truth, or making myself available to it from others. I will do the difficult work of standing up for whats right, even if it is not easy. I will work tirelessly even if it intimidates others.
I will not dim my light to make you more comfortable.
I will not play small in the world.
2012.05.01 On Success
Success isn’t measured by grades or by positive commentary (or lack thereof), it isn’t measured in the number of drawings printed or the sleep had;
Success is having really enjoyed the last 7 days of work. It is having found the right words, the expanse of pride and joy felt when standing beside the final product, it is the generosity and dedication of eight other individuals who gave up time and sleep to see models completed, and the pleasure taken in having the opportunity to show and share my work and passion one more time.
#thesis
2012.04.29 On Passion and Reason
“I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house. Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.” – Kahlil Gibran
A timely reminder that I must balance out and listen to both sides — my heart and my head. It is easy to dismiss one or the other as crazy when it serves me. The path of least resistance is ever at my feet and I must remind myself to continue through the thicket.
2012.04.11 On Discipline
There are no obstacles you can’t overcome once you’ve mastered yourself.
Most often, the thing that gets in the way of our success is our selves.
R: Perfection of the Mind
According to Rene Descartes the perfection of the mind is found in three things:
1. Promptitude of thought– Thought that reacts to the immediate situation, that can be formed and dismissed without any great hesitation, that can be analytical and critical and yet at the same time be vulnerable to the spontaneity that only great minds can offer.
2. Clearness and distinctness of imagination – Not strictly speaking originality but the ability to think beyond that which is presented to you, beyond the tangible answers and things of pure clarity. To be able to ask those questions which are most vital, even if they are questions of nonsense and banality–for sometimes it is a question that seems so simple, so plain, so uninspired and unproviding, that can reward us with the most breadth and depth of understanding (given we pursue the ends of such questions with such fervor and depth, given we overturn every possibility, and glance up every tree and down every root, branch, and leaf, given we sleep not in the search for such answers. given we have resolve enough to see the question through whatever unexpected, obstructing paths and discoveries that are to be hand, that we have resolve enough to reach the ultimate resolution untainted by cowardice or indecision.)
3. Fullness and readiness of memory – To be able to recall that which has happened, to be able to retain more, and then to be able to exert and extract the fundamental lessons provided at the core of each memory.
This is what makes a great mind.
M: Living ‘for’ the Moment
Everyone tells you “Life is too short” or perhaps to “Live in the moment”, but I doubt that with how much, in our lives, is dominated by the shadows of our past and the notions of our future that we can or that we know what that actually is. Maybe its all about learning to move and negotiate with those parameters to learn what the moment actually brings.
“For the moment,” thats the challenge.
M: On independent identity
You can not think when someone else thinks for you, prescribes your actions, or picks the tie you wear to work. You lack opinion and thus you lack identity, and thus you lack a basis to explore the human soul. Without a boat, the river can never be fully known. You can not navigate the far and deep reaches.
M: Killing the self in order to live authentically; De-conditioning the mind
“If you want to understand, really understand the way things are in this world, you’ve got to die at least once. And as that’s the law, it’s bette to die while you’re young, when you’ve still got time to pull yourself up adn start again.”Giorgio Bassani, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis ; Dedication quote in Nobility of Spirit by Rob Riemen.
For me this quote makes me think to killing off my ego, as well as deprogramming myself out of the conditioning that I have been subjected to. Sometimes our social programming is so strong that the only way out is by destroying everything around us–the world we live in is so tightly interwoven that we are unclear as to what is ours and what is theirs.
So we burn it all down. Destroy everything. Kill the life we had in order to rebuild and discover the life we want.