so what
The "purpose of playing," is "to hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature" - Shakespeare’s Hamlet: III, ii, 17-19
"We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror - Marshall McLuhan
"If somebody thinks they’re a hedgehog, presumably you just give ‘em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves" - Douglas Adams
"Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror" - Kahlil Gibran
”The only solution to achieve enduring happiness, therefore, is to keep finding new opportunities to refine one’s skills: do one’s job better or faster, or expand the tasks that comprise it; find a new set of challenges more appropriate to your stage of life. Paradoxically, the feeling of happiness is only realised after the event. To acknowledge it at the time would only serve as distraction.”
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, psychologist and author of 18 books on the subject of happiness including ’’FLOW: The Classic Work On How To Achieve Happiness’’, from his article for The Times (London, 9/19/05) entitled The Secrets of Happiness.
That's the primary secret in brief!
"Both his nature and his form were human: for he was a man of simple appearance, mature age, dark skin, small stature, three cubits high, hunchbacked with a long face, long nose, and meeting eyebrows, so that they who see him might be affrighted, with scanty hair with a parting in the middle of his head, after the manner of the Nazarites, and with an undeveloped beard."
- The Messiah Jesus According to Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, who lived circa 34 A.D.
Archaeological excavations have revealed that the average height of first-century Jewish males was five feet. (Roman males of the period averaged five feet four) At four and a half feet tall, Jesus was definitely undersized even for his time. By modern standards of height, he was a midget.
i have shown myself to be taken with interesting packaging material.
i learned last year when unpacking everthing ever kept, peeking inside my
things,
in my pockets and drawers, garage and other stores,
that i can expect to find
various empty once or never used bags,
boxes, cartons, envelopes and plastic trays,
twine, many types of tape (adhesive and otherwise),
paper packets of pepper, airsickness sacks, bottles,
stamps (both smacking and licking),
cards (index and business), quiet blank books, packing popcorn,
and soft white tyvek sachets of silicon
(a desicate which must not be eaten).
all fresh, empty,
and worthless.
Things I Know for Sure
list from a wall at Andrea Zittel’s Critical Space
exhibition in NYC - at the Chelsea Museum.
These Things I Know for Sure:
"1. It is a human trait to want to organize things in catagories. Inventing
catagories creates an illusion that there is an overriding rationale in
the way
that the world works.
2. Surfaces that are "easy to clean" also show dirt more. In reality a
surface
that camouflages dirt is much more practical than one that is easy to
clean.
3. Maintenance takes time and energy that can sometimes impede other forms
of
progress such as learning about new things.
4. All materials ultimately deteriorate and show signs of wear. It is
therefore
important to create designs that will look better after years of distress.
5. A perfected filing system can sometimes decrease efficiency. For
instance,
when letters and bills are filled away too quickly, it is easy to forget to
respond to them.
6. Many "progressive" designs actually hark back towards the lost idea of
nature
or a more "original form"
7. Ambiguity in visual design ultimately leads to a greater variety of
functions
than designs that are functionally fixed.
8. No matter how many options there are it is human nature to always narrow
things down to two polar, though inextricably linked choices.
9. The creation of rules is more creative than the destruction of them.
Creation
demands a higher level of reasoning and draws connections between cause and
effect. The best rules are never stable or permenant but evolve naturally
according to context or need.
10. What makes us feel liberated is not living in total freedom, but rather
living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for
ourselves.
11. Things we think are limiting can ultimately becoming restrictive, and
things
that we initially think are controlling can sometimes give us a sense of
comfort
and security.
12. Ideas seem to gestate the best in a void - when the void is filled it
is
more difficult to access them. In our consumption-driven society almost all
voids are filled, blocking moments of greater clarity and creativity.
Things
that block voids are called "avoids".
13. Sometimes if you can’t change the situation, you just have to change
the way
you think about the situation.
14. People are most happy when they are moving towards something not yet
attained. (I also wonder if this extends as well to the sensation of
physical
motion in space. I believe that I am happier when I am in a plane or car
because
I am moving towards an identifiable and attainable goals.)
- artist Andrea Zittel
as is usual in cases like this
the ruling of the court was disregarded
and the defendant was forced to complete the act
thereby bringing the full weight of the karma upon himself.
