The God of Peace
The God of Peace is very busy. He has no time to look in the mirror, but blows his trumpet all day long. The God of Peace's trumpet brings everyone happiness.
The God of Peace is very busy. He has no time to look in the mirror, but spreads his magical water. The magical water raises mountains of green, nurtures the fields, and makes flower gardens.
The God of Peace is very busy. He has no time to look in the mirror, but gives everyone names. "Your name is Otto." "Your name is Hans." "Your name is Tomas." "Your name is Johan."
Johan gave his own hat to the God in thanks. He was very happy. He wanted to see himself with his new hat, so he looked into a mirror for the first time. But what he saw in the mirror was a Devil.
The Devil inside the God said, you are me, and I am you.
"What should I do? With this Devil, nobody can live in peace. What should I do?"
The God was very troubled...
chapter 117Kitabı okudu
‘How'd'st rain rule here?’ says I to Evelyn to show her what a big poet I am — She really loves me, used to love me in the old days like a husband, for awhile there she had two husbands Cody and me, we were a perfect family till Cody finally got jealous or maybe I got jealous, it was wild for a while I'd be coming home from work on the railroad all dirty with my lamp and just as I came in for my Joy bubblebath old Cody was rushing off on a call so Evelyn had her new husband in the second shift then when Cody come home at dawn all dirty for his Joy bubblebath, ring, the phone's rung and the crew clerk's asked me out and I'm rushing off to work, both of us using the same old clunker car in shifts — And Evelyn always maintaining that she and I were really made for each other but her Karma was to serve Cody in this particular lifetime, which I really believe and I believe she loves him, too, but she'd say ‘I'll get you, Jack, in another lifetime . . . And you'll be very happy’ — ‘What?’ I'd yell to joke, ‘me running up the eternal halls of Karma tryina get away from you hey?’ — ‘It'll take you eternities to get rid of me,’ she adds sadly, which makes me jealous, I want her to say I'll never get rid of her — I wanta be chased for eternity till I catch her.
Sayfa 98 - Penguin Great KerouacKitabı okudu
He often makes blithe remarks about things he ‘wishes’. I wish you didn’t have to go, he says when she’s leaving, or: I wish you could stay the night. If he really wished for any of those things, Marianne knows, then they would happen. Connell always gets what he wants, and then feels sorry for himself when what he wants doesn’t make him happy.
“Imagine you’re at the edge of a forest, right before dawn. There’s no one else around, just you. It’s still dark, and you have no idea what you’re doing there. For whatever reason, you make up your mind to walk straight into the forest. After walking for a while, you come to a small house. Slowly, you open the door. Inside, you find ten sleeping children. The children are fast asleep. Now, in that moment, in that small house, there’s no joy, no pain, no happiness, no sadness. There’s nothing, because all the children are asleep. So what do you do? Wake them up or let them sleep? The choice is yours. If you wake them up, nine children will be happy that you did. They’ll smile and thank you. But one won’t. You know this, before you wake them up. You know that one child will feel nothing but pain from the moment they open their eyes until they finally die. Every second of that child’s life will be more horrible than death itself. You know this in advance. You don’t know which child it’s going to be, but you know that’s going to happen to one of them. If you bring a new life into the world, that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re waking one of these kids up. You know what makes you think doing that’s okay? Because it’s got nothing to do with you.”
“And Damon?” she called.
I stopped.
“When and if she comes around, take her somewhere, just the two of you.”
What?
“It’s called a date,” she explained, “and it’s where you do something she likes that makes her happy. You and she will keep your clothes on for this.”
Oh, you’re funny. I shook my head, leaving her apartment and stepping into the elevator.
I pushed the button for the lobby. “A fucking date,” I mumbled.
I had lines inside me, a string of guiding lights. I had language. Fiction and poetry are doses, medicines. What they heal is the rupture reality makes on the imagination. I had been damaged, and a very important part of me had been destroyed - that was my reality, the facts of my life. But on the other side of the facts was who I could be, how I could feel. And as long as I had words for that, images for that, stories for that, then I wasn't lost.
And what I’ve discovered is something entirely counterintuitive: that there is a freedom and liberation in commitment. I’ve found increased opportunity and upside in rejecting alternatives and distractions in favor of what I’ve chosen to let truly matter to me.
Commitment gives you freedom because you’re no longer distracted by the unimportant and frivolous. Commitment gives you freedom because it hones your attention and focus, directing them toward what is most efficient at making you healthy and happy. Commitment makes decision-making easier and removes any fear of missing out; knowing that what you already have is good enough, why would you ever stress about chasing more, more, more again? Commitment allows you to focus intently on a few highly important goals and achieve a greater degree of success than you otherwise would.
In this way, the rejection of alternatives liberates us—rejection of what does not align with our most important values, with our chosen metrics, rejection of the constant pursuit of breadth without depth.
Yes, breadth of experience is likely necessary and desirable when you’re young—after all, you have to go out there and discover what seems worth investing yourself in. But depth is where the gold is buried. And you have to stay committed to something and go deep to dig it up. That’s true in relationships, in a career, in building a great lifestyle—in everything.
Sayfa 147 - e-bookKitabı okudu
" I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness. "
Sayfa 272 - Workman PublishingKitabı okudu
