Random Quotes

[hummingwolf]

Bad design is good design. And tasteful good design, likewise, is bad. Not good-bad, just bad-bad. Now that "perfect" design is possible with the click of a mouse, the industrialized world has become nostalgic for "imperfect" design. As computer-aided everything takes over our lives we begin to realize, little by little, what is missing from the high-tech world. We realize that a crooked line sometimes has more soul than a perfectly straight one and that a recording that has just the right amount of distortion is often preferable to a perfect copy. Woe unto us when the medical profession perfects their newest genetic and cloning techniques! We might actually realize that our imperfections are what makes us human.

--David Byrne

Eros is the yearning force of being. I yearn, therefore I am. As long as I am on the outside, I can ignore my deepest desires and stifle my longing. When I am on the inside, however, when I am fully present, I am able to access my yearning. For the Hebrew mystic, unlike his Buddhist or Greek cousins, desire and longing are sacred. To be cut off from the eros of yearning is to be left in the cold of non-existence. To yearn is to be aflame.

Depression is at its core the depression of desire. When we lose touch with our authentic desire, we become listless and apathetic. There is wonderful eros in desire. It is what connects us most powerfully with our own pulsating aliveness. Longing is a vital strand in the textured fabric of the erotic. It is of the essence of the Holy of Holies.

--Mordechai (Marc) Gafni

But continually, throughout the history of the Jewish-Christian Church, the voice of warning has been raised against the power of the picture-makers: "God is a spirit," "without body, parts or passions"; He is pure being. "I am that I am."

Man, very obviously, is not a being of this kind: this body, parts, and passions are only too conspicuous in his makeup. How then can he be said to resemble God? Is it his immortal soul, his rationality, his self-consciousness, his free will, or what, that gives him a claim to this rather startling distinction? A case may be argued for all these elements in the complex nature of man. But had the author of Genesis anything particular in his mind when he wrote? It is observable that in the passage leading up to the statement about man, he has given no detailed information about God. Looking at man, he sees in him something essentially divine, but when we turn back to see what he says about the original upon which the "image" of God was modeled, we find only the single assertion, "God created." The characteristic common to God and man is apparently that: the desire and ability to make things.

--Dorothy L. Sayers

These turn out to be less random than they seemed when they first jumped at me.

Comments

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Bad design is good design. And tasteful good design, likewise, is bad. Not good-bad, just bad-bad. Now that "perfect" design is possible with the click of a mouse, the industrialized world has become nostalgic for "imperfect" design.

And thereby hangeth the tale of postmodernism.

Dern tootin' they're not random; they're frickin' serendipity embodied. You just posted my whole universe.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Heh. I posted your whole universe without using any Joss Whedon quotes? How did that happen?

[wildgarden.livejournal.com]

Great quotes!

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Glad you appreciated them!

eros and agape

[icdedpeople.livejournal.com]

They're very much related, and very much related to what I've been reading and thinking about lately. I especially like the second quote. Read something by Paul Tillich (re-reading part of Dynamics of Faith) where he says that Eros and Agape are equally important aspects of love. I had recently commented to a friend that the gospel that exalted self-sacrifice above all else, i.e. told me I was wrong to not love others more than myself, ultimately lost my confidence. Because it was asking me to love others as persons and not recognize that I was a person too. Conversely, the gospel of Ayn Rand (perhaps unfair to her) lost me as well, because it purported the opposite, and if I am a person whose desires are beautiful and sacred than other persons' desires and needs matter too.

Re: eros and agape

[bluegreen17]

thank you for pointing me to this wonderful inspiring collection. and thank you hummingwolf!

what you are saying here has been very much on my mind as well. i've been reading books on kabbalah and also christianity and it's about self-sacrifice...putting others first. but jesus said 'love your neighbor AS yourself.' doesn't that mean you and others are equa11y important?

i don't go for the opposite tack either,all too prevalent in our society,of thinking ONLy about yourse1f. that's what rudeness is,and i loathe it.

you keep mentioning paul tillich,whom i have briefly glanced at,but want to check him out again. and i love that gafni quote...even though i love the tenets of buddhism as well. perhaps i can reconcile it as a holy paradox.

so,thanks for your thoughts on that as well.

Re: eros and agape

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you appreciated the quotes I posted the other day. I believe self-sacrifice can be important, but doesn't that imply that there is first a self worth something? A sacrifice that isn't worth anything isn't really a sacrifice, after all.

Eh, I'm one of those weirdos who has to point out to people who go on about the values of asceticism that the God in the Bible ordained times of both fasting and feasting. Celebration and deprivation can both be manifestations of love.

Re: eros and agape

[skygypsy.livejournal.com]

and i love that gafni quote...even though i love the tenets of buddhism as well.

me too!

perhaps i can reconcile it as a holy paradox.

hehe!
:D

Re: eros and agape

[bluegreen17]

p.s. which gospel were you reading?

Re: eros and agape

[madralaoi.livejournal.com]

That is so interesting! I've been thinking a lot about what real love really is. I don't think I've ever felt that I would die for someone, for instance. Does that mean that I've never loved?
Are you supposed to be able to sacrifice yourself completely for someone else? Isn't that a bit...destructive?
I mean, I can care a LOT about my family and friends and lovers but killing myself for someone else...I don't know.

Just some ramblings. :)

Re: eros and agape

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

To be able to sacrifice yourself if necessary for the best good of someone else? Sure, that may be the highest (but not the only) form of love. To sacrifice yourself at the drop of a hat? That'd just be stupidity. Anyone who would ask you to give up everything for them would not be asking for a reasonable proof of your love; they'd merely be abusing you.

For most people, killing yourself would just be a bad idea. There's no need for it, even if you were willing. It seems to me that for most of us, the way love shines through is in how we live with someone rather than whether we die for someone. Are you patient with someone even when you're exhausted and really don't want to put up with them? Then at that moment, you're showing love.

All IMHO, of course. :-)

Re: eros and agape

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you got something from the quotes too. The second quote came from an article that mostly made my eyes glaze over; that one passage stood out as something I needed to pay attention to.

As far as exalting self-sacrifice above all else: In Christian terms, Jesus is the ultimate sacrificial Lamb--but when the crowds were pressing thick around him and he needed to rest, even he knew when it was time to withdraw and take care of himself.

[bluegreen17]

thank you for posting those. i find them very very inspiring!

: )