We're all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing.

 - Charles Bukowski

 

*always relevant 

 One day, some fragrance will issue from my being and I will flower.

Institute Benjamenta (1995)

“Children you are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources? Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut in the forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They're going to strip mine your soul. They're going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist, because the profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked!“

 - Utah Phillips

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. 

I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.”

— Mary Oliver

I used to think I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I've lost.

- Nan Goldin 

 

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet

 - Gerard Manley Hopkins

If we opened people up, we'd find landscapes. If we opened me up, we'd find beaches. - Agnes Verda

I would rather be faithful to my future than to my past, if it becomes a matter of choice.

― Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“I am something supernatural not exactly god, ghost, spirit, angel, principle or element – There is no term for it in English.”

 - Anne Carson

I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don't have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along. 

- Willam Stafford

One cannot live with sighted eyes and feeling heart and not know the miseries which afflict this world.

- Lorraine Hansberry 

I am too static to feel quite natural on the Milky Way.

- Helen Keller in letter about her experience going up top to the Empire State building 

 "All the years and places of his brief broken life came within mind's reach and made a whole again. He knew once more, at last, after this long, bitter, wasted time, who he was and where he was. But where he must go in the years to come, that he could not see; and he feared to see it."

A Wizard Of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin

each decade each culture erases all it's prior lessons and then coerces people to spend their time on entertainment to escape themselves

 

'I thought my fire was out,and stirred the ashes….I burnt my fingers.'

Antonio Machado

We must live our lives. Yes, we shall live

Sonya:

What can we do? We must live our lives. Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live through the long procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us; we shall work for others without rest, both now and when we are old; and when our last hour comes we shall meet it humbly, and there, beyond the grave, we shall say that we have suffered and wept, that our life was bitter, and God will have pity on us. Ah, then dear, dear Uncle, we shall see that bright and beautiful life; we shall rejoice and look back upon our sorrow here; a tender smile—and—we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate faith. We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see all evil and all our pain sink away in the great compassion that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as peaceful and tender and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have faith. My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are crying! You have never known what happiness was, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall rest.

Uncle Vanya

Anton Chekov

*Just watched Drive My Car with mom for Christmas, took a lot for my stream of tears to not burst me open

 

  In the last three years it seems so many have learned not just so little but even less than prior. Rainbows are Satan. Modern medicine is mind control. Voting doesn't really matter look at Florida. Misanthropy is good for the left. We keep winning on abortion but shut up about it. I believe in a better world for all but trans and drag queens are a bridge too far. On Twitter one of the richest ghouls in the world is my best friend. Free speech is when I can be allowed to harass and bully whomever and whenever I want and you have to respond, bitch. Hey another thing bitch you're going to be forced into giving birth because that's life which is precious and the government's business. Incidentally though all life is sacred see my prior statement everyone should be able to kill anyone they want to with a gun of their choosing at any given moment and teach their children also. I’m about to blow through another red light again today. Nobody stop me. The circus eating us all, digesting us as terrorized and flattened entities like a Twilight Zone episode indeed. I'm going to floor it this time.

He knew once more, at last, after this long, bitter, wasted time, who he was and where he was. But where he must go in the years to come, that he could not see; and he feared to see it. 

Ursula K. Le Guin

 He had always been sad in this way, or rather lacking in gaiety, like some lakes in whose waters is reflected a very high mountain, which shuts out sunlight from it and makes it black and melancholy. One knows that, if only the mountain could be removed, the sun would bring a smile to the face of the waters; but the mountain is always there and the lake is always sad. Like the lake, he too was sad; but what the mountain was, he could not have told.

(p.86)

The Conformist - Alberto Moravia