Sports and Emotion

Emotion...American society is often devoid of it. We lead the world in the copious amounts of mood altering substances that we take to suppress our true emotions. Even if someone is what our society would call "unbalanced", those are emotions that we suppress with prescription drugs, self-medicating through narcotics, opiates, uppers, downers...the list goes on. However, in the emotional wasteland that is the U S of A, people get crazy over sports. They will yell, fistfight, holler, and act generally insane over other people playing children's games. Now, anyone that knows me knows that I love sports; almost any kind of sport at any time of the year...I don't take any seasons off, I love pro and amateur sports...it's quite an affliction. However, I find it incredible that people get so fired up about sporting events of any kind. I am watching the Lakers and Nuggets play for a chance to go to the NBA Finals...people in Denver are now depressed...showing an emotion that they probably did not feel 3 hours ago before the game started...one that they will probably not feel next week. But for now, they are bummed out. Odd that in a corner of the world where we do everything that we can to not let others around us see our true emotions and feelings, we'll go up or down with our team with 20,000 strangers around us...maybe because they're doing the same thing.

Writers' Workshop

So...I signed up for a free writing workshop online.  It may be kind of hokey, and it may end up being a waste, but it supposedly has assignments and due dates, etc., so it will be a good forced start.  Also, yoga class is something that I'm thinking about doing.  We'll see.

Bukowski

We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. - Bukowski

So...someone asked me the other day why I liked this quote so much. Frankly, I think that it can speak to you whether you drink beer or not or appreciate Bukowski or not. The point is that life does not need to be something to be dreaded, and neither does death. So many people fear death in a way that is beyond normal. In our Western culture, we are encouraged to do EVERYTHING within our power to try and live as long as we can. Death is something to be avoided and put off forever. In my mind, this takes away any dignity that there can be in dying. We are told to think that we should get everything we can now, because there is nothing for us beyond death; try to squeeze everything that we can out of our 74.2 years or whatever we're allotted. A selfish way to live for sure. To me, Bukowski is not talking about living a life so that we can get what we want...he's talking about living a life that has a destination...death. The end. We will die, and that can not be avoided. However, the time that we have on the Earth can be spent living in constant fear and avoidance of death, or we can live in a way that embraces who we are, what we are made of and made for, and get as much as possible from life now. Then, I have no fear of death, because I know that I've lived my life genuinely and honestly every day. When I die, I don't cease to exist. Now, I see things cloudily...when I die, I will see things clearly. When I die, I will know fully, just as Christ knows me fully. Then, things will be clear, understanding will be had, and death won't be something to be scared of or avoided. In that sense, the thing that matters is not how long I avoided death, but what and how I lived.

First one...

So, I'm restarting this process. I think that it will aid my mental health immensely. We'll see. As far as the title, the quote is from Tolstoy...
"Art is not a pleasure, a solace, or an amusement; art is great matter. Art is an organ of human life, transmitting man's reasonable perception into feeling."

Interesting; maybe more on that later. Sontag refers to Susan Sontag, and I'm listening to an interview with her son right now...she was a very interesting woman and an even more interesting writer. So, we'll see where this takes us. Goodbye for now.