I'm going to try to be a little more concise from now on, unless I feel powerfully inspired to ramble on about something.
1. This quote jumped out at me as I was reading 21st Century Astronomy for another class.
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." -Albert Einstein
2. Reading the quote above reminded me of a quote by Oscar Wilde.
"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."
I think we are sometimes in danger of grouping all dead writers and poets under the same umbrella of humorlessness, and I feel it's somewhat unfair, as they weren't all consistent with the two extremes: melodramatic or painfully dry. I think Oscar Wilde, for instance, would have loved to hate bad emo poetry just as much as anyone alive today. There is a distinct sarcasm and self-awareness in much of what he wrote. ("All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.")
3. About six minutes into this video, Jamie Bamber responds to a fan's question, echoing the theme of some of my favorite works of fiction. Great powers of today seem as if they'll never fall, and I think sometimes it's difficult for people to put their own experience into a broader context across time and space. Whether it's Astronomy class or history class or political science, the theme remains the same: we have seen this before, and we will see it again. The world is greater than our perception of it. Part of that is how we die, specifically how we kill ourselves in our time and space, and Jamie Bamber (of all people) lays it out pretty bluntly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yX1f8APSaA
4. More from Battlestar Galactica:
"I'm a scientist. And as a scientist, I believe if God exists, our knowledge of him is imperfect. Why? Because the stories and myths we have are the products of men, the passage of time. The religion you practice is based on a theory, impossible to prove. Yet you bestow it with absolutes like, "There is no such thing as coincidence." Absolute belief in God's will means there's a reason for everything. Everything! And yet you can't help ask yourself how God can allow death and destruction. And then despise yourself for asking. But the truth is, if we knew God's will, we'd all be gods, wouldn't we?"
5. Watching an NFL Films special the other day, I was struck by what Otto Graham said during a segment on greatest players. It's a pretty straightforward statement, but what stayed with me was how easily defeated I regularly am by the latter half of it. The first half is why I feel I should write, in addition to the deep need to write, but the second half is why I have taken so long to place myself in a creative writing class. I have loved to write for so long, and spent so many hours nurturing that dream in private, that the fear of failure freezes me as I step into the greater world.
"You have to have the confidence that you will do good, but at the same time, inside, you have to have the fear that you might fail."
I leave the final word to Soundgarden.
Kerrang: Why did you want to play the guitar?
Kim Thayil: Because it was louder than I could scream.
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