Now, or months from now, The time elapsed descends, Catches fire like lamps Igniting upward drawn drapes, The fire all around in lampshade plumes. Now, or from forever never elapsed, Sandspurs hang on hearts of twine, The burning bleeding are bands of a dial. Now, or when years become porous And leak out like broken sprinklers.
The Stoic
Fritter and Waste the Hours in an Offhand Way
You try to care of yourself and total up all the here-and-there times you aimed to be better. If desire had an actualizing effect then you’d be far off and away, but they don’t. So have you really moved the needle? Needless to say, you can look down and see where your feet still lay. You haven’t really set off have you? Are you any further from home? Have you made any marked progress? You set off into the wilderness for penance or punishment.
I hope you come back to the world. There is more to do on your hero’s journey. Don’t be lost and alone too long.
No one can really speak to what time you have wasted time looks like. This life is your alone to measure. It is only a matter of accountability wit careful examination. Time is only wasted when nothing is learned. If your reach back provides the insight of time as our most valuable resource then I say it’s not wasted. If you fail to recognize this, that is a fault. It must be an honest appraisal. Otherwise, you are fooling yourself. Are you so scared of an honest account that your are set on lying? Justifying?
I am not here to invalidate your progress. I want to offer perspective. Give that to yourself.
You are Young and Life is Long
We are relatively young and life is long, but it moves quickly if you refuse to settle into every moment. Each one is valuable.
We are all still learning. The focus of these articles is Stoic practice, not mastery. Mastery doesn’t sit right with me. It can only be in contrast to Aristotle’s Golden Mean. It is too far on the extremes of competence and inability. Considering mastery as anything other than opportunity broaden and diversify is foolhardy. The assumption of mastery neglects the need to keep practice in the fundamentals.
There is a reason that earning a degree is called graduation. It is not an end but a continued leveling. Conferring in itself brings on the next challenges. It is growth in capability.
If you have been around long enough to read a couple of of my articles you will see a theme of dichotomy and ambiguity. I am not searching for easy tenets, direct lines, or straightforward answers. Even in the base descriptions of Stoicism I find that deeper discussion is needed. I meet the idea living in accordance with nature with the understanding of how unique mankind is against the animals. I also consider how much individuality comes to mark mankind against themselves. My view of reasoned judgement is in contrasting interplay to the sublimity of the human spirit.
Short of Breath and One Day Closer to Death
Writing about death can go one of two ways: it is either depressing and it’s a hard thing to hear, or you sound like the emo teenager who’s totally not going through a phase. Death being ever present makes it a valid, but easy, subject for writing. Entire aesthetics of some poets are centered around death: think of Poe.
It is a large focus of the Stoic philosophy. However, it doesn’t have to be only focus. It is not a moribund way of living, but one of awareness. Don’t be afraid of death. Don’t avert your eyes. C’mon baby now, don’t fear the reaper. Oh wait, that’s a different band.
The Poetic
Subject Matter
At all points in developing your writing practice you will find yourself having trouble deciding which subjects count as poetry, so without getting into any convoluted didactics and to eschew obfuscation, or in regular human speak (I’m actually Vulcan):
Poetry is the combination of the specific and universal. It is feelings in words. It is about life, all of life, because it is about being human. All writing about a feeling is poetry.
Poetry must start and end with a feeling. The rest is practice and editing.
Thank you
If this is your first post, or your latest, thank you. However it poured out, my last post has garnered the most views of all that I have written so far.
I want this to continue to grow. I want to find an audience. I want to write to you and be of value. It is indispensable for me to be a better writer and to try and be a better human.