Quote: The Self

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.”

~ Marcus Aurelius

What? I am Happy

Something happened yesterday morning, sitting in traffic and lost in thought; I was distracted by a lady walking her daughter to school. They were both lost in the moment, smiling blissfully as they recited some rhyme.

A few paces later they encountered a group of sulky men trekking to work in the opposite direction towards industrial area. Thereupon the lady immediately froze and became indifferent (probably out of some sense of guilt) as the little girl, oblivious to the encounter, continued reciting her rhyme cheerfully.

This brief encounter got me wondering…should we be ashamed of being happy just because those around us are unhappy?

The Face

“A look which reveals inward stress adds more beauty to the face, no matter how much tragedy and pain it bespeaks; but the face which, in silence, does not announce hidden mysteries is not beautiful, regardless of the symmetry of its features.”*

Apart from making you stronger, do “bad” life experiences also add beauty to your face?

Well according to Plato’s theory of Forms, particulars have the properties they have because they have Form-copies derived from the Forms which are those properties. What makes x beautiful, for instance, is its having something which is beautiful. This something can either be a Form or Form-copy, for these alone are beautiful. Therefore beauty itself alone is beautiful; other things acquire their beauty in virtue of partaking in what is beautiful.

And so it is probable that “bad” life experiences constitute what is beautiful. Because the pain they cause is the breaking of the shell that encloses our understanding; which is why we emerge stronger.

*From Broken Wings by Kahlil Gibran

Only in Kenya

Who? Obama

History provides the full logic of an Obama presidency

Most political analysts agree that Obama’s candidacy is a transformational one. But looking back to history, the most fundamental point of his candidacy is that it is happening now and consequently has less to do with him than with the moment he is meeting…

Quote: Reality

“Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.”

~ Epictetus

The Senses

From Secrets of the Heart by Kahlil Gibran

“How ignorant are those who see, without question, the abstract existence with some of their senses, but insist upon doubting until that existence reveals itself to all their senses. Is not faith the sense of the heart as truly as sight is the sense of the eye?

And how narrow is the one who hears the song of the blackbird and sees it hovering above the branches, but doubts that which he has seen and heard until he seizes the bird with his hands. Were not a portion of his senses sufficient?

How strange is the one who dreams in truth of a beautiful reality, and then, when he endeavors to fashion it into form but cannot succeed, doubts the dream and blasphemes the reality and distrusts the beauty!”

Follow your Heart. It has its reasons, unknown to reason.