S W O O N D: so long, farewell

12.29.2008

so long, farewell

Sunday was the second annual Good Riddance Day: New York City residents were invited to say goodbye to their bad memories of 2008 (the financial meltdown, in particular) by tossing them into an industrial-strength shredder set up in Times Square. A sledgehammer was provided to those who preferred to have their lingering 2008 memories smashed to pieces (subtle). Last year, people destroyed their annoying cell phones and shredded lousy report cards. This year, the $250 prize for the most creative object shredded went to a man who tossed in a sock. It represented all the socks that emerge from the laundry without their mates.

:la times

the world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

- w. b. yeats

sounds travel through space long after their wave patterns have ceased to be detectable by the human ear: some cut right through the ionosphere and barrel on out into the cosmic heartland, while others bounce around, eventually being absorbed into the vibratory fields of earthly barriers, but in neither case does the energy succumb; it goes on forever - which is why we, each of us, should take pains to make sweet notes.

- tom robbins

the same dream returned each night until i dared not to go to sleep and grew quite ill. i dreamed i had a child, and even in the dream i saw it was my life, and it was an idiot, and i ran away. but it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. until i thought, if i could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps i could sleep. and i bent to its broken face, and it was horrible . . . but i kissed it. i think one must finally take one's life in one's arms.

- arthur miller, after the fall

YIN AND JUNG

who looks outside, dreams;

who looks inside, awakes.

everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.

when we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness. we wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness. but to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer.

- carl jung, the stages of life