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Thursday, December 25, 2014

Life…..

...is a long, winding journey of discovering how much of a nobody you really are.

That's been my experience, anyway.

13 comments:

Steven said...

In other words, you become more humble (and therefore more sane and psychologically healthy) as you age.

So you're a nobody. Okay then, I guess you can relax. The trees are still there; the stars are still there. You're a nobody but you're part of this amazing thing. Its infinitely bigger than your little identity and we're all a part of it. Maybe the more you drop yourself, the more you can appreciate that.

Maybe this is what Leonard Cohen was talking about when he said: “I found that things became a lot easier when I no longer expected to win. You abandon your masterpiece and sink into the real masterpiece.”

I can't say that I'm there yet.

Happy Christmas :-)

Steve

John Craig said...

Steven --
Merry Christmas to you.

Your comment was long than the post. And more profound.

Steven said...

At least the post was from experience.


Steven said...

haha. I never meant it like that!

Anonymous said...

John,

If you contribute to other peoples' lives in a positive manner (which you do), helping them along their own paths in life (sharing your gifts, abilities, etc.), then you are a somebody. We are all imperfect, having times when we feel down, insignificant. God bless you this Christmas day. This is my take on what life's about.

I have read near-death accounts of people who have died and come back to life, curious to know what these people learned in the after-life. According to their spiritual experiences, we are all special, having missions in life, to fulfill while we're here on earth (things that we need to learn and accomplish in our lifetime). That's another thing that I believe. According to what I've learned, we are here for different purposes, being able to sense the divine at times (in my own life). You have touched people (for the better) in your lifetime, so that's a plus, that's what life is about (in my own opinion).

-birdie

John Craig said...

Birdie --
Thank you.

It actually wasn't an entirely serious post (well, maybe partly serious), but I wasn't feeling down on myself or anything, I just thought it was an amusing thought that others might identify with, so I put it up.

But thank you.

Steven said...

If you want to annoy somebody, be serious when they are joking and joke when they are serious :-)

I can see John getting more and more irritated with every serious comment until he is eventually saying I WASN'T FUCKING SERIOUS!

Steven said...

Birdie, its true that you can be a nobody in the grand scheme of things (unknown and insignificant to almost all people in the world) but to one person or several people you could mean everything, you could be their saviour or their angel. Wouldn't you have to be narcissistic to want to be loved by the whole world?

Plus you never know how much of an impact your actions have. Take one little element out of the equation and the whole thing might play out differently. See 'the ripple effect' and 'the butterfly effect'. The effects of an action can keep rippling outwards and change the world. In that sense, your life might be more consequential than you think.

John Craig said...

Steven --
I'm not annoyed at all when someone takes a semi-joking comment more seriously than it was intended; sometimes it's hard to tell how people mean things, especially via the internet.

Jokah Macpherson said...

I read Tom Wolfe's I am Charlotte Simmons for the first time over Christmas (yeah, I'm ten years late; too freakin' bad) and it has a good chapter called "The H-Word" that begins with a paragraph ruminating on how, according to George Orwell, men cover up the humiliations that make up 75% of life. Although it's shown as a direct quote, I can't find an original source for it, although Orwell did express sentiments of the kind.

Anyways, I thought it was a good point. That's why I want my funeral (hopefully not soon) to be a roast. If people just talk about my moments of triumph and wisdom, that leaves out most of my life.

John Craig said...

Jokah --
A noble sentiment. (Though, personally, I'd prefer people to remember the 5% of mine that was successful.)

In any case, I, uh, look forward to your funeral. (Was that the wrong thing to say?)

It's never to late to read I Am Charlotte Simmons. I was floored by how good it was, thought it was the best college novel I'd ever ready, and the amazing thing was, Wolfe was over 70 when he wrote it. I thought the initial scenes where Charlotte gave her graduations speech at her high school and had her father defend her at the party afterward was both funny and moving. And the interplay between the white and black basketball players was perfect. But I'm always floored by what a genius Wolfe is.

Jokah Macpherson said...

Yeah, I agree, it was really good and definitely worth it. I was in college in the period the book was set so it especially hit home for me.

I felt bad for poor Adam Gellin. I was rooting for him to at least get a pity fuck from Charlotte even though it was clear no serious romance would ever be forthcoming but he made a lot of elementary game mistakes that he couldn't afford (compared to Jojo).

It didn't help that I failed pursuing a cute girl from Waynesville, NC this fall (same mountain accent) so it was like reliving that all over again.

John Craig said...

Jokah --
If you haven't failed, it just means you've never been up to bat.

Yes, Adam was the ultimate beta, he could have benefited from reading a little chateau Heartiste.