A place for my thoughts and ideas, my creative outlet, a little piece of the web for me to call my own...yeah...right...
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| a bite of chocolat... ::home:: A place for my thoughts and ideas, my creative outlet, a little piece of the web for me to call my own...yeah...right... |
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Thursday, April 01, 2004 In my French class the other day, we were translating a quote from philosopher Blaise Pascal of the 1600's. In a book entitled Les Penses, Pascal compiled a random assortment of just that, thoughts. Thought #143: Divertissement. On charge les hommes, dès l'enfance, du soin de leur honneur, de leur bien, de leurs amis, et encore du bien et de l'honneur de leurs amis. On les accable d'affaires, de l'apprentissage des langues et d'exercices, et on leur fait entendre qu'ils ne sauraient être heureux sans que leur santé, leur honneur, leur fortune et celle de leurs amis soient en bon état, et qu'une seule chose qui manque les rendrait malheureux. Ainsi on leur donne des charges et des affaires qui les font tracasser dès la pointe du jour. Voilà, direz-vous, une étrange manière de les rendre heureux! Que pourrait-on faire de mieux pour les rendre malheureux? Comment! ce qu'on pourrait faire? Il ne faudrait que leur ôter tous ces soins; car alors ils se verraient, ils penseraient à ce qu'ils sont, d'où ils viennent, où ils vont; et ainsi on ne peut trop les occuper et les détourner. Et c'est pourquoi, après leur avoir tant préparé d'affaires, s'ils ont quelque temps de relâche, on leur conseille de l'employer à se divertir, à jouer, et à s'occuper toujours tout entiers. And this upset me... It roughly translates to: Entertainment. We expect men, since childhood, to guard their honor, their well being, their friends, and also the well being and honor of their friends. We burden them with things like learning languages and exercises. And we tell them that they will not be happy without their health, honor, and fortune, and those of their friends, kept in a good state, and one single thing missing would ruin everything. And so, we give them expectations and things that they must worry about everyday. That's, you say, a strange way to make them happy! What better could we do to make them unhappy? How could we do that? It would not be necessary to take away all of their responsibilities; for then they would see themselves, they would think about what they are, where they come from, where they're going; and so we could not busy them and distract them. And that is why, after having done all of their duties, if they have some time to relax, we advise them to spend it distracting themselves, to play something, and to busy themselves for all of their time. Now why would this well meaning thought disturb me? Because it declares that we need to be diverted from reality in order to be happy. And because this is true. Why can't reality make us happy? Because it isn't good enough for us. If there is some great creator, we've been royally shafted. I don't care if it's supposed to be a "test to see who is worthy." Beeause this is my life. This is my life. Mine. I don't want some great I AM toiling with it. This life is the only one I have, and I want to make the most of it. But the REALITY of it all is that The Most is unreachable. And that, that is sad. They say that Life Isn't Fair. And they are right. It's not fair; it is not fair... posted by Shannon | 5:07 PM |
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