“Right you are, Knulp. Everything is beautiful when you look at it in a good moment.”“Yes. But there’s more to it. The most beautiful things, I think, give us something else besides pleasure; they also leave us with a feeling of sadness and fear.”
“Why?”
“...If a beautiful thing were to remain beautiful for all eternity, I’d be glad, but all the same I’d look at it with a colder eye. I’d say to myself: You can look at it any time, it doesn’t have to be today. But when I know that something is perishable and can’t last forever, I look at it with a feeling not just of joy but of compassion as well.”
“I suppose so.”
“To me there’s nothing more beautiful than fireworks in the night. There are blue and green fireballs, they rise up in the darkness, and at the height of their beauty they double back and they’re gone. When you watch them, you’re happy but at the same time afraid, because in a moment it will all be over. The happiness and fear go together, and it’s much more beautiful than if it lasted longer. Don’t you feel the same way?”
---Knulp.
~~~
By sheer coincidence (?) this picture is related to the last post. As if to say: if we could see the end, how things pan out, would our first moves be any different? But, also, something else: if truth and beauty are distant then they're also reflected here. And if that is so, is it not the very fleetingness of them that makes them all the more meaningful, all the more precious? "Reflections", tender glances in the mirror, the chaste heart, the lowered gaze from times before (Milosz)..all that carries through, is not lost.
6 comments:
Reminded me of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZYJtEW2VtM
So, stumbling and falling through mindful considerations of the "fleetingness" of it all and "loss". But, what sayeth thou, dear Blogger? "Do you fell the same way?" "Does fleetingness make 'them" more precious?" You are old & wise, dear Blogger, I'm sure you have a very informed- experienced?- insight. Thanks.
old, yes. Wise...er..
yes, i do feel the same way, anon. but that fleetingness only makes sense because we're pulled in the other direction, because we want things to last. Wouldn't you agree? If there was a mere acceptance of everything passing before our eyes then why the sadness?
i think when one is young (er) you don't think about such questions: there is only the day or a summer and it seems as if it will last forever; as you grow old (er) you see people slipping by, beauty fading, stars (music/sports, etc) rise and fall. Time becomes more intense, more pointed.
no insights here, dear anon. just a bit of early morning rambling!
Keep well,
b.
Am not sure, dear Blogger? Do we want things to last? Not very sure on this one, I hate to be the obnoxious contrarian here, we've barely known each other and more courtesy should be in place, methinks. But, still, don't we want things to change... Move on...Or along...Grow...Flow...Explode like beautiful fireworks in the dark? Sorry, I always read backwards, or sideways, it's just a quirk of mine.
So, no, no sadness, no sameness, no settlledness. And I truly hate to be the over explicating explicator here, there, & everywhere. But I have a strong feeling we know this: if we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. And I'd even venture guess-against my better judgement- that solar hue, that variegation of gleam and shade, of yours will shine on, smoke or wind.
You may be old(er), dear Blogger, but you are usefully wiser.
Best.
PS...I forgot: I somehow know you know this but, no again, a certain beauty never fades. Come on, dearest Blogger, what kind of beauty are you, our beauty? Sorry, just some 5 o'clock ramblings, rufflings, and rustlings of tea leaves.
Hello, A.
No, it's okay, you don't have to agree with anything here (I'm not even sure if *I* agree with everything here! :-))
Hmm. dunno. couldn't we have just a little bit of settledness? :-)
All this change...really haven't got the energy for it and it does make my head spin! And I do think we're pulled both ways: the city and the desert, home and the need to escape from home...our oldest games: lost and found.
Keep well,
b.
Hello B,
Thanks. i would hope you don't agree with everything there/here. We could, yeah, we could have more settledness, we could have more homes and multiple deserts too. I was thinking more along the lines of "settledness for less"...But since we don' have to agree, anything goes, I suppose. :)
As to games, mine is, again, similar, yet not quite the same. Hide-and-seek as in this
Someone hides from someone else
Hides under his tongue
The other looks for him under the earth
He hides on his forehead
The other looks for him in the sky
He hides inside his forgetfulness
The other looks for him in the grass
Looks for him looks
There's no place he doesn't look
And looking he loses himself
Keep fine, B. Sunning, too
Sorry to make your head spin, but, maybe, after all your black sun is a sun flower in truth. Ponder on... I mean, sun on!
Thanks, A, that was really nice. :-)
Best wishes,
b.
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