Classical Philosophy of Quality
(PD) The Lady and the Unicorn - Á mon seul désir
Copyright ©2012-2021 — updated February 15, 2021
If I speak,
and yet say nothing new,
might the words still be of value,
if the words remain true?
"Thus it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mental well-being. We should not, then, be hesitant about challenging man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill." Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, Simon & Schuster, 1984.
At one time I had invested about three and a half years — eight to sixteen hours a day — into the critiqued logics of a popular system of beliefs, and when the study was completed, having left me with no new useful thing to read on the topic, within my acquired habit of reading I turned to other topics with the desire to find something fresh to ponder and to analyze. The English dictionary was the most rewarding, in part for its novelty of presenting such a wide array of definitions that possessed no definition. When my attention shifted towards the goal of finding a topic of a greater complexity of logic, I opened a law book, and within moments I closed the book, never again to be opened. Since it was popularly believed that western philosophy is held with high esteem, I chose to investigate and determine how well western philosophy might hold up under the pressure of logic. Western philosophy is of a footing more stable than that of law, but not by much — I read several sentences before closing the books, not to again be opened for over twenty years — and I never found a satisfaction nor a logical sum within any of the concepts.
"Aristotle, the prince of philosophers, dreamed of the eternitie of the world. Plato, his schoolmaister, shooting somewhat more neere vunto the marke, wandered notwithstanding somewhat from the trueth." - Thomas Tymme to Lord Ambrose, Earle of Warwicke, circa 1563.
When my previous hobby website was first created in 2007, I had intended for the site to remain a hobby, merely a means of toying with a few ideas that included web design layouts, compatibility issues with different browsers, observing how search engines react to different methods of presentation, and of the several other reasons, a means of publicly voicing my thoughts on various topics that were of an interest to me at the time. If the site required text, then what topic was to be used for the text? The website's topics were chosen primarily and simply upon the reasoning that the topics enabled the fulfillment of the reasons for the site itself.
With the site being a hobby, and thus not required to conform to any standard not of my own, I chose to work with the things that I personally find to be the most pleasurable; beauty (that which sympathetically enhances one's own life), logic (skill of mind), talent (skill of hand), and the items that harmonize to create the thing known as quality. Classical music — when performed with talent and quality — is one genre of man's most beautiful music, for it mirrors the rhythms found in Nature's own manner of creative quality. It has been remarked by some individuals that some classical music mirrors the rhythms found in some DNA, and if the observations are correct, then it helps to illustrate why we may find a beauty in classical music; because it does indeed harmonize with our very nature.
Bach, Vivaldi, Hilary Hahn, Sarah Chang, and the several others, the list is not long, but there is great depth. Rembrandt, Waterhouse, Michelangelo, and the few others, again the list is short, but the depth and breadth are remarkable. Natalie Dessay, Sarah Brightman, Alison Krauss, Kate Wolf, there is no musical instrument as beautiful as a woman's voice. What of Karunesh's Ancient Voices, Deva Premal's Guru Rinpoche Mantra, Bernward Koch's Evoking Wonder, and the many others, is not their harmony also of a beauty that harmonizes with the very nature of he who has walked within love? If no one genre of music can be the sole source of all beauty — beauty exists in many things, with each form of beauty requiring that it nascents from causes different from other beauties — and if my words are to point to beauty, then by what means should I attempt to present beauty without a conflict of differences?
Should my words be arranged within a dreamy drifting of unguided curiosities set to the rhythm of a modern new age melody that carries memories of first perceptions:
— and if a musical rhythm is held within the mind, and felt within the heart, so that the previous tones remain as of the chord of the latter, enabling the individual to perceive a spherical river of unending harmony, how then might the individual interpret a string of DNA except that it is as a rhythm whose ending tones color the first, and that all color the other within an infinity of resonance, enabling a comprehending of how from the first to the last, there is no separation, no middle, no left or right, no beginning, no end, the whole rests within and exists within each individual, and the song of the string within our bodies becomes as a fleeting serenade to our very souls —
Or should my words be stronger with a chill of firm logic applied to the warmth of a beauty experienced:
— the story told within the music of Paz's Birth of a River, it creates anguished tears and heartache for all who have experienced for themselves the life, and yet there is no sense of emotion within the man who has not lived the life, and so it is known beforehand that beauty exists not within the thing itself, but rather the beauty is found in how the thing resonates with one's own past experiences, a harmony that pulls fiercely and brings into lucid memory all that we hold dear —
Or should my words remove all warmth, life, curiosity and wonder — as well as truth — so that they might blend with a textbook:
— normative love is a branch of philosophical love. The three categories of philosophical love are Applied Love, Metalove, and Normative Love. Love is a brain mechanism for the survival of the specie. Natural selection chose love to be the method of evolution. The three types of love are parental, reproductive, and philosophical. The universe is based on the laws of mathematics, English, and natural selection... —
While the previous paragraph was written in jest so as to illustrate the lack of usefulness within 'ten words or less statements' that are too often found in textbooks, still much of what I wrote is indeed taught in schools; I merely rearranged the words a little so as to conceal the identity of the culprits who teach the words.
Perhaps might there be a value in my blending the several different rhythms so as to create an unfinished song, one that is allowed to be colored and filled with the reader's own life? Allow the man to feel his own beauty, to find and to discover that that which he holds as precious is a reflection of his own nature, and that which he yearns to become.
"Similar to all skills of hand, there is a similar methodology of performing mental actions that choose a thing as good, and to present to the mind that which is beautiful, which illustrates to the mind what is good, and that the whole of the thought is to give distinction of that thing, to bring to light the fulfillment of recognizing what is good." Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics, translation by Larry Neal Gowdy Aristotelian Ethics.
While there may exist some truth in most philosophies, in none of the philosophies have I found a fullness of satisfaction, and so rather than my recite the words of a philosophy that I already know to contain errors, or to limit my words to cultures dependent on one genre of music, I chose instead to create my own manner of wording, one that allows for the presenting of good and useful words from each of the several philosophies, plus a few thoughts of my own.
When combining man's most talented painters with man's most gifted composers and musicians, it is found that the created environment is one that speaks of an era within the developing of humanity itself, an era of new thought, of a search for a freedom from the errors of past dogmas, of a yearning for truth, and it is within that spirit that I have attempted to assemble my words so that the words may exhibit a similar spirit, one that thrives on questions with the yearning to discover what might be true, and beautiful.
And here is my folly of pleasure, that I should attempt such a wondrous thing as to assemble the world's greatest talents within a thing as lowly and unremarkable as a website, and to do so with the aim of the site's coding being compatible with most all current browsers regardless of the disquality that a browser might possess. But that had become my aim, and so within my questioning of how well the ideals might blend with and allow of themselves to be presented on a website, I created a website for the purpose of finding the answers. Today, over a decade later, now that most new browsers share a similar ability to read coding accurately, I would like to cleanse my original coding so as to allow for a cleaner manner of display, but I have received a few positive comments on the design, and since it is terribly rare to receive comments, let alone positive ones, I am currently with the mind to leave the design as it is, and to only cleanse the code where useful for the enhanced viewing of paragraph formatting.
Sites like this one are usually well-hidden from the public's eye due to the general public having little interest in philosophies, and too, since typically fewer than one percent of Internet users will read a full page of text, if the author should make a error in spelling or choice of words he might have months or years to find and correct the mistake before anyone else spots the error. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, my website quickly gained popularity, and the site continued to have an increasing number of visitors each month. It was a pleasing thing to see that the site had gathered a bit of popularity, but it was not so pleasing that some of my articles included uncareful words that more illustrated my grumpy frustrations with the topics rather than my having used gentle words more suitable for public viewing. In my environment it is normal to voice an opinion and to then calmly discuss the concepts to derive a useful and well-articulated conclusion, but an article's initial opinions cannot be discussed between the author and reader, and so of course the articles' purpose may not appear clear to the reader who is unfamiliar with the opinion/discussion method. I had initially assumed that almost no one would find an interest in my words, and so within that assumption I was not always careful to clarify the words' intentions.
quod ignorans feci in incredulitate
I did it ignorantly in unbelief
In the effort to help remedy a portion of the past difficulties, I am presenting this page as a partial clarification of my thoughts on the various topics, especially those of the Nodin and William dialogues and other pages that might have related information (e.g. What Can a 100 IQ Accomplish).
(PD) Odilon Redon Bouddha
All individuals interpret all topics differently, and what might be interpreted as dry and without meaning to one person, might be interpreted as tenderly beautiful to another person. It is, in part, each individual's own personal history that colors another person's words, and if an individual has not yet themselves experienced a width of life, then the individual cannot perceive a width within another person's life. Too, by what song that a person's soul sings, so does the song harmonize or conflict with the song of another person's. There is a song of individuals' that speaks of the individuals' history in religions, songs that speak of a history of academia, songs that speak of a history of traveling the world, and each individual possesses their own unique song that no other being in the universe can mirror.
To hear and grasp the rhythm of each person's inward song, it is necessary that the listener have a past history with a similar song plus another song that is different enough to permit a logical weighing between the chords of rhythms. We cannot know what the accent might be in a language without our first having heard the accent, we cannot grasp the rhythms within the thoughts of love without our first having loved, and in all things we must personally experience a similar thing before we can know what the things might be. All topics on this website are unclosed, their intended meanings being left open for interpretation, and by what life-history a person may possess, so will the topics be interpreted. It would be a sad thing to simply recite words, as if the memorizing of words were a desirable thing, while leaving the individual no opportunity to experience a variance of life sufficient enough to enable a recognition of differing rhythms.
My words, therefore, simply point to things that I believe are useful, things that are a small challenge, but give in return a large reward, and then become the foundation for new creations that are the pinnacle of man's highest achievement.
The thoughts behind the idea of sensorial perception, honesty, quietude, and love are based on the observation that specific personality traits must be present before there can exist a quality product. Memorizing the words is not sufficient to instill the traits; an individual must actually possess the traits before the traits can exist within the individual. No quantity of discussion or knowledge can side-step a need for the traits: the traits must exist, else the individual cannot benefit from the traits.
Es brennet und flammet die reineste kerze
der liebe, des trostes in seele und brust
It burns and flames the most pure of candle,
the love, and consolation within my soul and heart
Bach Cantata 21 Aria T
(adaptive translation by Larry Neal Gowdy)
The ingredients of flour, oil, heat, and time are required for the creation of bread. Bread does not come into existence without the necessary ingredients. Likewise, perceptions, honesty, quietude, and love are ingredients, and no person will ever know what the ingredients create, unless, of course, the individual were to actually possess and blend the ingredients. As no one can know the taste and aroma of bread without personally tasting and smelling bread, so likewise will the creation of a quality thing never be known to the person who does not taste the creation. Memorizing the ingredients for bread, and then believing that the bread has been tasted, is no less silly than memorizing the ingredients of perception, honesty, quietude, and love, and then believing that the creation is made known or placed into a form that can be imagined a priori.
Please do not interpret my words to imply a knowledge to be learned, nor even discussed as if with an aim to learn of their usefulness, but rather interpret my words to imply a thing that a person is to become — and must become — before the person can then enjoy the usefulness of the traits. I am presenting the following ideas so that individuals who believe that knowledge is a thing to memorize might memorize my words, and perhaps at a future date the individuals' minds may begin to recognize that the memorized knowledge requires something more than the mind merely being used as a tape recorder.
Sensory perceptions: each individual must sensorially perceive their world before the person's mind can recognize that their world exists. A person cannot create an abstract thought about height without the person having first sensorially perceived a thing of height. Similarly, a person must experience firsthand all other attributes of things before the person can create an abstract thought related to the things. Yes I am aware that some schools teach that sensory perception is unimportant and even undesirably 'subjective', but the schools are wrong in the belief. If an individual must insist that he can know all things without sensory perception, then fine, the individual will receive my best wishes, and I will not press the matter further to the individual.
Honesty: the benefit of prolonged honesty of thought and speech is one of the most productive and necessary acts of intelligence. A purposefully incorrect conclusion does not magically disappear from the mind, the memory is retained, and the greater number of dishonest choices that a person makes, the greater becomes the tendency for the individual to sum all thoughts incorrectly. Lying for profit, deceiving for gain, and all other dishonest acts harm the liar as much or more than what it harms the intended victim. An individual who claims and convinces himself that a blue object is green, in time the individual's mind accepts the contortion of sensory perceptions to be valid, and the individual can then no longer think with accuracy. Honesty is beneficial for all things, including one's self.
Quietude: when an individual pauses before speaking and/or reacting, allowing the individual time to reflect on the words and acts, to ensure that the choices are useful and thus beneficial, the person has in so doing enabled the taming of the emotions, and the individual is then interpreted to be of a quiet and calm nature by observers. Keeping one's mouth shut while deep inside the person still rages with strong emotions, such a behavior is not quietude. Quietude implies self-observation and self-critiquing with the goal of consciously rationalizing an action before committing the action. Will the words be received with gentleness or will the listener interpret the words with strife? Will an act be received by other individuals as harmonious or as aggressive? Stop, calm the emotions, think, analyze, and only then speak the words that are more sure to create harmony.
Love: love has several different flavors, but within each is the act of a person having accepted another person as having a value superior to that of the lover's own, and the lover's own life is influenced by how it fits in and harmonizes with the loved person's life. Harming a loved person's life would harm one's own. In love there is a desire to protect the loved person, to ensure that as little harm as possible is experienced by the loved person, and so the lover is careful to not harm the loved person, not mentally nor physically. The best and most assured method of benefiting one's own self is through the love and bettering of another person. Love is an overly important topic, especially in how it relates to two or more objects harmonizing together to create a greater product. Two people in love can accomplish more than a world without love. The absence of love harms you personally, immediately, now, permanently and forever.
And so the primary items in my articles point to a sensory perception that allows an individual to gather information suitable for knowledge to base logic, an honesty that permits an accuracy of thoughts, a quietude that permits the conscious reasoning of which act should be committed, and a love that is more concerned for the accuracy and wellbeing of the loved thing than for one's own self.
(PD) Odilon Redon Virgin of the Dawn
A common method of retaining the audience's interest in a movie is to present a danger, a scenario that the characters must struggle to overcome. A similar method is used in some philosophies as a means of instruction as well as a tool for exercising the mind's system of logic and ethics. Successful religions have books that repeatedly challenge the reader to distinguish good from bad, and in so doing, the reader's mind develops a sense of morality that has for its foundation the religions' doctrines. The method of presenting what is good, and then contrasting the good with what is not good, the method works well for illustrating why an opinion might be valid. Without the contrast, the human mind is not as likely to recognize why a good thing is good. While it might also seem useful for me to present scenarios that illustrate humanity's current dangers, I would prefer to not speak of the negatives, and so I planned to only lightly touch on a few small contrasts. It is my website, it is my article, and it is my choice whether to choose positivity or negativity.
An early draft of this article had grown to about 5,200 words in length, with the greater portion of the latter half pointing to the dangers that humanity is facing, but I decided to delete the words and instead present a different approach. After the article regrew to about 9,500 words I again deleted major portions, including over one-hundred lines of code that presented details too clearly. It is not an easy thing to speak of a well-learned topic while purposefully being forced to avoid speaking of the very topic's details. It is often at this point that I abandon an article and choose another topic, but after several more attempts to place my thoughts within a light that is not dark, I decided that the article is well enough spoken, and I will finish the page with a few small things that are in my opinion worthy of being said.
(PD) Odilon Redon Beatrice
Since the history of man has well verified that man has not been bettered by past philosophies, then it would not be reasonable for me to believe that repeating the same thing over and over might produce different results. If all philosophies have failed, and there exists no useful teaching that the common man might accept as his own, what then should we do? Do we invent yet another philosophy and then believe that it will be better than any of the thousands of philosophies before it? Do we give up and walk away, our declaring that humanity is simply incapable of rational behavior? Or might there be another choice?
Of what value is it to draft philosophical resolutions if the population is too weak from malnutrition to live up to the ideals or even to think coherently? Regardless of what any of us might reason to be good and useful goals, none of the goals are attainable for the individual whose mind and soul have been dulled from the lack of healthy food. Wealthy men of luxury and comfort rambled at length of unlearned philosophies while hundreds of thousands of humans died from pellagra in the American southeast. May all philosophies be forbidden and be delivered into a hot climate until the day that all living beings are fed so well that no one ever again suffers blindness, schizophrenia, ADD, scurvy, nor any other malnutrition-related disorder.
If you want a man to think sensibly, then allow him to first have proper rest and be well-fed. Any philosophy that preaches lofty goals while ignoring the most basic needs of life, such a philosophy is one of arrogant hypocrisy and willful ignorance.
"...I am not a Buddhist, nor a Christian, nor a Jain, nor a Hindu; I am but I. ...and of many other things, within none were any subject to the rule of any man's words, and never will the I be subject to man's invention of ethics. Krishna is love, and love is the I's only standard, for it is from love that I exist." Larry Neal Gowdy Hindu Ethics.
What have you received, and in what balance have you given in return?
Never seek answers
Experience the question
The word breathe is known,
But to breathe is to understand
Larry Neal Gowdy, circa 1982
One difficulty with philosophies is that the philosophies are created by a genre of the human specie that is sizably different than the norm. Compared to the general population, philosophers tend to have a width of education, a width of reasoning, well-fed bellies, and an inward drive to investigate topics that the general public does not find interesting. The result is that what might work for the philosopher cannot work for the general public, and so it is to be expected that a philosophy created by a philosopher must fail when applied to the public. It is an impassable chasm that a workable philosophy for the masses must be created by an individual who is himself a member of the masses, but since the masses are not interested in philosophy, then no one of the masses would care to create a philosophy.
It is useful to draw a further contrast between two of humanity's differences. The typical manner of human learning and reasoning — aside from the natural learning through childhood play — is through the education provided by adults in schools. The typical human, if left to himself, will not create a language, will not create a mathematics, nor will the individual create much of anything beyond what might serve to feed the belly and to enable a small degree of ease. The typical human is having a bit of fun and enjoying (or suffering) a life that is largely made possible by the rare humans who create new things for everyone else to enjoy.
Is one person in a million a Rembrandt? No. Is one person in a million a Bach? No. If quality creativity is such a rarity that we hesitate and question ourselves just how rare creativity might be — one in a billion? one in fifty billion? — then upon the same scale we must also ask ourselves if one person in a million is truly intelligent, or might the percentile still rest within that which is average? Canines tend to possess the wonderful attributes of affection and loyalty, and each specie has its own trends of favorable traits, as do humans, but a dog still behaves as a dog, as does a cow behave as a cow, and humans behave as humans. Except for human languages and a different selection of common attributes shared by all animals, humans are not so different than most other mammals.
(PD) Odilon Redon Reflection
Mathematics is a two-dimensional measuring of one to three or more dimensions, which illustrates to the observer that humans think two-dimensionally. Although it is a well-accepted belief that humans can think three-dimensionally, and only the rare individual can think in four dimensions, when the belief is more closely examined it is found that the typical human can only think two-dimensionally, and by placing three each two-dimensional thoughts together (height, depth, and width) does the person then believe that he has thought three-dimensionally. Perhaps the most simple example that illustrates two-dimensional thinking is the irrational two-dimensional number of Pi. If humans thought three-dimensionally, then Pi would not exist in mathematics. Nevertheless, even if a four-dimensional formula were provided for the measuring of a sphere, still the typical human would not be capable of utilizing the formula since the formula would require four-dimensional thinking to make use of the formula. And so the item being presented here is the observation and realization that it is not of value to give to the public a thing that the public cannot use.
Regardless of what observations and mathematics that a philosopher may have acquired, the information is of no value to anyone else except philosophers of a similar experience. I am not implying that one segment of the population is smarter or less smart than the other (besides, I judge intelligence upon the creativity of quality traits, not IQ scores), I am only stating that there are large differences within the human specie — humans still behave as humans — and the differences are a portion of what prevents humanity from sharing a single philosophy.
Upon my first having learned to crawl, with abrased elbows I pulled myself into the living room where I discovered a gray spider walking southward on the floor's trim-board. I marveled at the living thing, for it being different than the humans, as well as for its radiance of quality, and I delighted in analyzing the mechanics and geometries of the legs relative to the body and the board that enabled the creature's mobility. I greatly enjoy observing and reasoning what has been observed, but my joy cannot be the same joy that everyone enjoys, and so whatsoever pleases me is assured of not pleasing everyone else, and thus too, any philosophy that I may create cannot be useful for anyone except individuals who are very similar to me. And so if I cannot create a philosophy suitable for all humans, and if my observations and manner of reasoning cannot be shared by all humans, then perhaps the best that I can do is to simply present a knowledge that individuals would discover a delightful and beautiful thing if the individuals were to combine specific traits.
But before I could form the thoughts to allow for the dividing of the thoughts to choose which descriptive words to use within the sequencing of the words to write the previous sentences, numerous other thoughts arose and flowed simultaneously, some parallel, some at near right-angles, including the questioning of the thoughts' concepts, which was further analyzed for its proper manner of dissecting and presentation while I continued forming and writing the words of the previous sentences: is my interpretation of delight and beauty the same as all other individuals'? The answer is a firm no. The sense of beauty has for its foundation numerous variables that include genetics, culture, and environment. By what we feel inwardly within ourselves, the feelings being self-created upon one's own personal quantity and quality of mind-body synergy, and thus influenced by the body's genetics and desires, it is therefore assured that my interpretation of beauty is mine alone, and I have no right nor rational reason to force my form of happiness upon another person. If I were to promote a philosophy of beauty and happiness — regardless of the reasonable effectiveness of the physics — I would be committing a similar error as Utilitarianism, Objectivism, and all the other failed philosophies.
The popular belief that William Sidis was the smartest man on earth and yet he held no sense of beauty, the belief being based upon the hearsay that he did not feel a similar sense of beauty as did an ignorant man, the belief is one of the greatest absurdities committed by biographers and humanity itself. The story of William Sidis is remarkable, not for the life of Sidis, but for the frightening vacuity of reasoning within almost all of the biographies. Of the dozens of similar absurdities within the biographies about Sidis, the myth of a lack of beauty stands as perhaps the most harmful to both Sidis as well as the believer.
As a small child I was told by an individual that in heaven there could be a five dollar bill lying in the street and that no one would take it for their own. I did not comprehend why anyone would unfairly take the five dollar bill now in the present, let alone why there would be money or any other material wealth in a heaven, and so to me the person's concept of heaven conflicted with my own ethics. It was not until I was much older, perhaps five or six, did I begin observing the behavior of the dishonest public, and only then did I discover why humans deemed a rational behavior to somehow require a supernatural origin. Perhaps it might? As an adult I have been told that in science there is a requirement for empirical observation, but I myself have not yet witnessed any science — nor any science book — form a conclusion on empirical observation, and so to me, materialistic heavens and sciences exist together in a classification of irrational human absurdities. That which is deemed rational or irrational to one person will of necessity be deemed the opposite by someone else, and if humans cannot find a common agreement on any topic, then there is no reason to pretend that humans ever will. [Update March 29, 2013: When arriving at a customer's location this morning, as I walked across the parking lot I spotted paper currency folded several times into a narrow rectangle, and having picked up the currency I looked closer and discovered that it was a twenty dollar bill. I carried the money into the customer's office and handed an employee the money, my hoping that the owner might return and ask for the lost bill, and that the money would not blow away and be forever lost in the wind. Heaven is not a place, it is not here or there, it is within you. I may be hungry, and I may live in poverty, but I am so rich that I care more for what is right than what I care for my own comforts, and it is within that richness that I am most comforted.]
We are faced with a grievous predicament; the planet's ability to sustain life cannot survive man's current wastefulness. I am not so concerned with the planet, it can heal itself within a few million years, but only after humanity has finished killing most all living beings, including humans. For those of us who care for all life, what can we do? Can we do anything at all?
(PD) Odilon Redon The Sacred Heart
I have observed an individual with the ability to lighten their body weight by about ten percent at will. If levitation were a possibility, of what value might it be other than for the moment's entertainment? And if the inward traits necessary to permit levitation require extensive personal dedication, a dedication that the general public will not exert, then of what value would it be to so much as mention what the dedication might entail? Of the individuals who visibly glow, the individuals' righteousness is observable, but of what value is it to glow? Within each uncommon talent there exist similar inward attributes, those of love, compassion, caring, quietude, and perception. If the same attributes exist within all remarkable talents, then surely it would seem as though humanity would rush to achieve for themselves similar attributes, but most humans did not do so in the past, nor at the present, and it is assumed that most humans will not do so in the future.
And so the things that I write about are simply the things that I find interesting, and it is not assumed that anyone else will find an interest in the topics, nor that anyone else should. My philosophy is mine, it only works for me, it will not work for anyone else, and neither will anyone else's philosophy work for anyone except themselves. If you find my words entertaining or useful, then good, and if you do not find a pleasure in my words, then that too is okay, neither you nor I are required to bow and submit to the other's preferences. I write with the thought of "these are the things that interest me" so that with curiosity we can learn from each other what our interests might be, and my words are not with the thought of "these are the things that you must do."
Recipes are written so that people can blend different ingredients to create a new flavor of bread, but there is no reason why you must assemble the ingredients if you do not want to eat bread. Similarly, the ingredients that I speak of are known to create a thing of good flavor, but if your interests are in something different, then that is okay.
(PD) Odilon Redon Stained Glass Window
A thing that I wrote about thirty years ago: "The beast is here and now, and the people perceive it not, for they are of the beast, they are the beast, and they do not know what they are doing." The world is starving for a lack of bread, and the world will die from hunger because humans refuse to share the ingredients necessary to feed everyone, including themselves. My words are little different than what words have been spoken many times over the millennia, and so to me it appeared reasonable to assume that if the words were ignored by people in the past, then surely the words will continue being ignored today, and they will be.
As I said near the first of this page and on the information page, I write for a hobby and for other reasons related to web design, and I chose the topics merely because they are easy topics for me to write about, even if it was known beforehand that the words will not be admired by the masses. To me, there is a tremendous beauty within the individual who possesses quality traits, and their words should not become lost, and so I have presented their words here, so that, relative to quality traits, you too might observe that which is beautiful.
Viscera tua gaudium habuerunt,
sicut gramen, super quod ros cadit,
cum ei viriditatem infudit,
ut et in te factum est
Nunc omnis ecclesia in gaudio rutilet
ac in symphonia sonet
propter dulcissima virginem
Had the joy of thy bowels,
as grass, upon which the dew falls,
when he has infused the green,
it came to pass in thee also
Now all the radiances within the joy of the body
and in symphonic sonnets
sweet for the sake of the pure
Hildegard von Bingen - portions of Ave Generosa, circa 1150.
(Generous translation by Larry Neal Gowdy)