Quote: Society

Credit: High Society, 1998 by Cecily Brown

What, I wondered, did he mean by “society”? The plural of human beings? Where was the substance of this thing called “society”? I had spent my whole life thinking that society must certainly be something powerful, harsh and severe, but to hear Horiki talk made the words “Don’t you mean yourself?” come to the tip of my tongue. But I held the words back, reluctant to anger him.
‘Society won’t stand for it.’
‘It’s not society. You’re the one who won’t stand for it - right?’
‘If you do such a thing society will make you suffer for it’
‘It’s not society. It’s you, isn’t it?’
‘Before you know it, you’ll be ostracized by society.’
‘It’s not society. You’re going to do the ostracizing, aren’t you?’
Words, words of every kind went flitting through my head. “Know thy particular fearsomeness, thy knavery, cunning and witchcraft!” What I said, however, as I wiped the perspiration from my face with a handkerchief was merely, “You’ve put me in a cold sweat!” I smiled.
From then on, however, I came to hold, almost as a philosophical conviction, the belief: What is society but an individual?

~ Osamu Dazai

Quote: Society

Credit: High Society, 1998 by Cecily Brown

What, I wondered, did he mean by “society”? The plural of human beings? Where was the substance of this thing called “society”? I had spent my whole life thinking that society must certainly be something powerful, harsh and severe, but to hear Horiki talk made the words “Don’t you mean yourself?” come to the tip of my tongue. But I held the words back, reluctant to anger him.
‘Society won’t stand for it.’
‘It’s not society. You’re the one who won’t stand for it - right?’
‘If you do such a thing society will make you suffer for it’
‘It’s not society. It’s you, isn’t it?’
‘Before you know it, you’ll be ostracized by society.’
‘It’s not society. You’re going to do the ostracizing, aren’t you?’
Words, words of every kind went flitting through my head. “Know thy particular fearsomeness, thy knavery, cunning and witchcraft!” What I said, however, as I wiped the perspiration from my face with a handkerchief was merely, “You’ve put me in a cold sweat!” I smiled.
From then on, however, I came to hold, almost as a philosophical conviction, the belief: What is society but an individual?

~ Osamu Dazai

Quote: Anger

Source: Unknown/Favim

"Anger is just anger. It isn't good. It isn't bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters. It's like anything else. You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to make the choice."
Constructive anger," the demon said, her voice dripping sarcasm.
Also known as passion," I said quietly. "Passion has overthrown tyrants and freed prisoners and slaves. Passion has brought justice where there was savagery. Passion has created freedom where there was nothing but fear. Passion has helped souls rise from the ashes of their horrible lives and build something better, stronger, more beautiful.”

~ Jim Butcher

Quote: Anger

Source: Unknown/Favim

"Anger is just anger. It isn't good. It isn't bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters. It's like anything else. You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to make the choice."
Constructive anger," the demon said, her voice dripping sarcasm.
Also known as passion," I said quietly. "Passion has overthrown tyrants and freed prisoners and slaves. Passion has brought justice where there was savagery. Passion has created freedom where there was nothing but fear. Passion has helped souls rise from the ashes of their horrible lives and build something better, stronger, more beautiful.”

~ Jim Butcher

Quote on paralysis

Source: CI Surfboards

I’m not angry (about the paralysis), because no one did this to me. Maybe I’d feel differently if I’d been in a car that was rammed by a drunk driver. But it happened while I was doing something I loved.

~ Jesse Billauer

Quote on paralysis

Source: CI Surfboards

I’m not angry (about the paralysis), because no one did this to me. Maybe I’d feel differently if I’d been in a car that was rammed by a drunk driver. But it happened while I was doing something I loved.

~ Jesse Billauer

Which Side Are You On?

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Where does my anger come from
            at the laziness, the prosaic?
How many times will you enter a room
          and leave it vacant: in and out,
in and out, visiting a temple of possibility
           and never leave a gift on the altar?

Come down to the river of your own soul, we are    
           excavating 

here, the yellow helmets you see are so many
suns on the horizon, going down and coming up
in no particular time sequence or order.
         When one flower opens, Kabir says,
                       ordinarily

dozens open. I'm digressing.

Every time you visit yourself without
             respect, you lose. Without love,
Also.
Read the coins you've thrown down into the dirt,
          they spell integrity. You recall those
early moments in
your young life when you sang. And we were
             witnesses-- if not then, now. We can
             see you
outside the ordinary, grab onto a miracle and
understand it was no more you than the
            wind.

Oh, so that's it, finally:
No more you or me than that mountain
         there. And no mountain either.

    Which side are you on?

~ Janine Pommy Vega

Which Side Are You On?

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Where does my anger come from
            at the laziness, the prosaic?
How many times will you enter a room
          and leave it vacant: in and out,
in and out, visiting a temple of possibility
           and never leave a gift on the altar?

Come down to the river of your own soul, we are    
           excavating 

here, the yellow helmets you see are so many
suns on the horizon, going down and coming up
in no particular time sequence or order.
         When one flower opens, Kabir says,
                       ordinarily

dozens open. I'm digressing.

Every time you visit yourself without
             respect, you lose. Without love,
Also.
Read the coins you've thrown down into the dirt,
          they spell integrity. You recall those
early moments in
your young life when you sang. And we were
             witnesses-- if not then, now. We can
             see you
outside the ordinary, grab onto a miracle and
understand it was no more you than the
            wind.

Oh, so that's it, finally:
No more you or me than that mountain
         there. And no mountain either.

    Which side are you on?

~ Janine Pommy Vega

The Shapes of Leaves

Photo credit: mzacha from morguefile.com

Ginkgo, cottonwood, pin oak, sweet gum, tulip tree:

our emotions resemble leaves and alive

to their shapes we are nourished.

Have you felt the expanse and contours of grief

along the edges of a big Norway maple?

Have you winced at the orange flare

searing the curves of a curling dogwood?

I have seen from the air logged islands,

each with a network of branching gravel roads,

and felt a moment of pure anger, aspen gold.

I have seen sandhill cranes moving in an open field,

a single white whooping crane in the flock.

And I have traveled along the contours

of leaves that have no name. Here

where the air is wet and the light is cool,

I feel what others are thinking and do not speak,

I know pleasure in the veins of a sugar maple,

I am living at the edge of a new leaf.

~ Arthur Sze

_____________________________________________

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf. ~ Albert Schweitzer 

The Shapes of Leaves

Photo credit: mzacha from morguefile.com

Ginkgo, cottonwood, pin oak, sweet gum, tulip tree:

our emotions resemble leaves and alive

to their shapes we are nourished.

Have you felt the expanse and contours of grief

along the edges of a big Norway maple?

Have you winced at the orange flare

searing the curves of a curling dogwood?

I have seen from the air logged islands,

each with a network of branching gravel roads,

and felt a moment of pure anger, aspen gold.

I have seen sandhill cranes moving in an open field,

a single white whooping crane in the flock.

And I have traveled along the contours

of leaves that have no name. Here

where the air is wet and the light is cool,

I feel what others are thinking and do not speak,

I know pleasure in the veins of a sugar maple,

I am living at the edge of a new leaf.

~ Arthur Sze

_____________________________________________

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf. ~ Albert Schweitzer