Words of Wisdom: "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami

"Imaginary postcard from the impossible library" by magic fly paula

"Every one of us is losing something precious to us," he says after the phone stops ringing. "Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep making new reference cards. We have to dust things off once in a while, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library."

- "Kafka on the Shore" Haruki Murakami

Words of Wisdom: Micheal Jackson

“In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe.”

“The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation.”

“The greatest education in the world is watching the masters at work.”

“'Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons. The truth will win this marathon in court.'”

“And my goal in life is to give to the world what I was lucky to receive: the ecstasy of divine union through my music and my dance.”

"Just because it’s in print doesn’t mean it’s the gospel."

"I don't like pop music."

"I'll always be Peter Pan in my heart."

“Let us dream of tomorrow where we can truly love from the soul, and know love as the ultimate truth at the heart of all creation.”

“You can always dream, and your dreams will come true, but you have to make them come true.”

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.”

Rumi & The Mirror

"Mirrored" by carakatze


Let go of your worries

and be completely clear-hearted,

like the face of a mirror

that contains no images.

If you want a clear mirror,

behold yourself

and see the shameless truth,

which the mirror reflects.

If metal can be polished

to a mirror-like finish,

what polishing might the mirror

of the heart require?

Between the mirror and the heart

is this single difference:

the heart conceals secrets,

while the mirror does not.
 

- Rumi, The Divani Shamsi Tabriz, XIII

Words of Wisdom: Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood is as much an icon as she is a fashion designer. Coming up from modest beginnings, this self-taught seamstress has become one of the most recognized fashion designers of all time. Her punk influenced designs have successfully ridden the curves thrown by generational subculture with the grace of a swan, the fortitude of a royal tank.

Her words speak of a vibrant past, and a eccentric, anarchistic approach to creativity...

“There's always a polemic in my clothes.”

“I think it is terribly important to have opinions, and to think. We live in a world of action without thought.”

“For me Margaret Thatcher has always been one of the world's best-dressed people. Her politics were appalling, but her look gave her incredible presence.”

"We wanted to step off our island and add the color of the third world. We got gold cigarette paper and stuck it around our teeth. We really did look like pirates and dressed to look the part."

"We lived in a tiny 4-wheel box-like thing made of wood that attached to the car. We parked it at the beach so my children could benefit from the sea air. Eventually, I went back to teaching - but it was mostly on and off."

"The muscular, athletic type is not representative of the human race, who are varied in their physique."

"It is not possible for a man to be elegant without a touch of femininity."

"I was still interested in the youth rebellion but never-the-less I stopped being a victim. Stopped trying to attack the establishment realizing that it takes too much of your energy."

"I think some people would love to be able to make the clothes I make - and of course, I do influence them, but they keep simplifying, and minimalism doesn't quite work."

"I think dress, hairstyle and make-up are the crucial factors in projecting an attractive persona and give one the chance to enhance one's best physical features."

"I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them - they are individual and stylish."

"Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well."

"Even though it was the 70s, we found old stocks of clothes that had never been worn from the 50s and took them apart. I started to teach myself how to make clothes from that kind of formula."

"...since I always had my own little shop and direct access to the public, I've been able to build up a technique without marketing people ever telling me what the public wants."

“I'm not trying to do something different, I'm trying to do the same thing but in a different way.”

Words of Wisdom: Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. In that time she carved out the position we consider today that of the First Lady, as a diplomat to public service and social reform. Not satisfied to hide in the shadow of her husband the president, Eleanor was an active political force in her own right, an intelligent, eloquent female who worked ferociously for those that could not speak out for themselves. To this day she is considered the measuring rod that all first ladies are held up to, and she continues to be an inspiration and aspiration for active females the world over.

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. "

"A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art."

"I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity."

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't."

"Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world."

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people."

"I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on."

"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it."

"If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault."

"My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths."

"It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself."

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself."

"Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life."

"One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else."

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built."

"Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality."

"Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday."

"You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give."

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility."

"Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one."

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."

"What is to give light must endure the burning."

Words of Wisdom: Leonardo da Vinci

Scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer: Leonardo da Vinci was the original Renaissance Man. For someone like me, with interests and passions that vacillate between several fields, I often feel like I am creatively being pulled in too many directions at once. In this way, Leonardo da Vinci is a testament to an eclectic mind, the ultimate ADD Superman. He reminds me that not only can one gain a knowledge of varying spheres of knwledge, one can become a master at many, if not all.

“He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.“

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.“

“Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.“

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.“

“Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.“

“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.“

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.“

“Common Sense is that which judges the things given to it by other senses.“

“Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.“

“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.“

“He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.“

“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.“

“In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.“

“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.“

“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.“

“There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.“

“I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.“

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.“

Words of Wisdom: Cary Grant

Suave, debonair, handsome: Cary Grant was the sex symbol of a generation. In life, Cary Grant often discussed the difficulty of living up to the image he portrayed; how the character of "Cary Grant" was beyond the attainable ideals of anyone, least of all himself.

He was a funny, talented, intelligent gentleman, and his witticisms still don't fail to put a smile on the face, and that old Hollywood twinkle in the eye.

“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.“

“Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.”

“My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.”

“...and there I suddenly found my articulate self in a dazzling land of smiling, jostling people wearing and not wearing all sorts of costumes and doing all sorts of clever things. And that's when I knew! What other life could there be but that of an actor?”

“I think that making love is the best form of exercise”

“When people tell you how young you look, they are telling you how old you are”

“I improve on misquotation.”

“Everyone wants to be.”

“Do your job and demand your compensation - but in that order.”

“Why don't you invent some hot diamonds?”

“I think most of us become actors because we want affection, love and applause.“

“There's no point in being unhappy about growing older. Just think of the millions who have been denied the privilege.“

“I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each.“

“I've often been accused by critics of being myself on-screen. But being oneself is more difficult than you'd suppose.“

“It's important to know where you've come from so that you can know where you`re going.“

“It takes 500 small details to add up to one favorable impression.“

“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”

On Wonder

"Fractal Tiger" by ricdiggle

"At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far."

"Life of Pi,"Yann Martel

Words of Wisdom: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a visionary, both politically and spiritually. A pioneer of non-violent resistance, he paved the way for a how conflicts can be settled without resorting to violence.

His words on individual and moral integrity are as impactful today as when he first spoke them, particularly for anyone going through hard ethical and spiritual dilemmas, and serve as a reminder to all of us that one can find the balance to be gentle in action, but strong in conviction.

"A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble."

"A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion."

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

"A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident."

"Action expresses priorities."

"All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take."

"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well."

"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching."

"Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding."

"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

"Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession."

"Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position."

"Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart."

"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances."

"Each one prays to God according to his own light."

"Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth."

"Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies."

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

"Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it."

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

"Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress."

"I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another."

"In a gentle way, you can shake the world."

Words of Wisdom: Albert Einstein

When thinking of a brilliant mind, one immediately calls to mind Albert Einstein. Even if one is not a scientist, he can be admired and respected: as a professional, he utterly revolutionized his field, never stopped thinking and expanding the boundaries set by his predecessors.

Not only was Einstein an incredibly brilliant theoretical physicist, but his insights into life, logic and spirituality were both elegant and enlightening, and give further evidence to the brilliance that he contained within himself. He was and remains an inspiration and a marvel; a man whose simplicity, intelligence, and kindness we can all aspire to.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

"The only real valuable thing is intuition."

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."

"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."

"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."

"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."

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

Words of Wisdom: Katherine Hepburn

Bold, confidant, and beautiful - Katherine Hepburn was a woman before her time. With swagger and wit, she carved out for herself a career during a time when a woman was supposed to merely follow the prescribed path. With her sharp slacks, dramatic demeanor and that breathy, enigmatic voice, she carved herself into an icon, and her memorable words are as potent as the memory she left on our cultural psyche.

“As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.”

"Everyone thought I was bold and fearless and even arrogant, but inside I was always quaking."

"Never complain. Never explain."

"Why slap them on the wrist with feather when you can belt them over the head with a sledgehammer."

"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased."

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun."

"Enemies are so stimulating."

"To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time."

“As one goes through life one learns that if you don't paddle your own canoe, you don't move.”

"We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change."

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving."

"Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about."

"Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do."

"If you’re given a choice between money and sex appeal, take the money. As you get older, the money will become your sex appeal."

"Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got to not forget to laugh."

"If you survive long enough, you're revered - rather like an old building."

"There are no laurels in life ... just new challenges."

"It’s life isn’t it? You plow ahead and make a hit. And you plow on and someone passes you. Then someone passes them. Time levels."

"Life is hard. After all, it kills you."

"I don't think that work ever really destroyed anybody. I think that lack of work destroys them a hell of a lot more."

"I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky."

"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don't do that by sitting around."

"I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun."

Words of Wisdom: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite writers. His writing contains a simplicity, elegance and wisdom that has rarely been matched before or since: he is truly the great American writer. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is one of my favorite short stories, and a beautiful example of the profound power Hemingway is able to portray simply by revealing a small moment to the reader.

Hemingway's quotes share humor and truth, and wise insights on writing. Sometimes painfully true, sometimes good for a laugh, but always strong, and sure and brave.

"All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened."

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."

"Courage is grace under pressure."

"Cowardice... is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination."

"For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.'

"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."

"I know now that there is no one thing that is true - it is all true."

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."

"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?"

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way."

"Never confuse movement with action."

"Never go on trips with anyone you do not love."

"The shortest answer is doing the thing."

"That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way."

"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

"The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it."

"You're beautiful, like a May fly."

Words of Wisdom: Coco Chanel

Not only was Coco Chanel a marvelous designer, but she had some fantastic insights into life through her words. Here are a few of my favorite Coco-isms...

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”

“As long as you know men are like children, you know everything!"”

“How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.”

“Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”

“Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.”

“There are people who have money and people who are rich.”

“Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.”

“Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.”

“Elegance is refusal.”

“It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure.”



Also, how stunning is Audrey Tatou as Chanel?

Doting on Quotes

"Ruffletastic" by shoobydoo

I admit it - I am a sucker for quotes. There's something so admirable in their ability to encapsulate an idea in a easy sentence or two. They may dip into cliche, but cliche is powerful because it is often true - and I personally love them as well. Here are a few of my favorite in terms of fashion and style:

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
- Coco Chanel

“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Fashion is as profound and critical a part of the social life of man as sex, and is made up of the same ambivalent mixture of irresistible urges and inevitable taboos.”
- Rene Konig

“"Style" is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. Fashion is something that comes after style.”
- John Fairchild quotes

“Above all, remember that the most important thing you can take anywhere is not a Gucci bag or French-cut jeans; it's an open mind”
- Gail Rubin Bereny quotes

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common - this is my symphony."
- William Ellery Channing quotes

What are your personal quotes?

Sicky-Poo

Living Hope, 1 Peter 1:3-9 VerseVisions
Originally uploaded by Marketseq

Apologies for the late post today: I am sadly a bit under the weather. However, I will be back tomorrow with all sorts of wonderful for my lovelies.

In the meantime, I leave you with these wonderful quotes by Mr. Bradbury and Mr. Bukowski:

"If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair, we'd never have a friendship, we'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well that's just nonsense! You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build wings on the way down."
- Ray Bradbury

The young poet should stay the hell out of writing classes and find out what's happening around the corner. And bad luck for the young poet would be a rich father, an early marriage, an early success or the ability to do anything well.
- Charles Bukowski

Predictions

Victorian Fairy Portrait
Originally uploaded by ex.libris

Over the past week, I find myself continually returning to read this collection of "Predictions of the year 2000" from the Ladies Home Journal of 1900. These predictions, written in that turn-of-the-century style that I could just eat up with a spoon, are as insightful as they are entertaining to read 100 years after they were written. Some are quite remarkably on the money, such as:

Prediction #7: There will be air-ships, but they will not successfully compete with surface cars and water vessels for passenger or freight traffic.

Prediction #18: Telephones Around the World. Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago.

Prediction #25: Fast-flying refrigerators on land and sea will bring delicious fruits from the tropics and southern temperate zone within a few days.

While others show as just how much farther we have to go...

Prediction #13: Strawberries as Large as Apples will be eaten by our great-great-grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large.

Prediction #17: A university education will be free to every man and woman...Poor students will be given free board, free clothing and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses...In vacation time poor children will be taken on trips to various parts of the world. Etiquette and housekeeping will be important studies in the public schools.

Read the whole set of predictions here

Andrew Bird in the Studio

photo by Michael Maly

Andrew Bird is a Chicago singer-songwriter, violinist, guitarist, and self-proclaimed professional whistler. If you haven't heard his latest album, Armchair Aprocrypha, I suggest you do, as I consider it a personal favorite from last year. Bird has this warm, holistic sound that I think can only be the result of someone who has a thorough knowledge of every piece going into a song.

Andrew Bird has an article in the New York Times this week on life inside the studio. As someone who has never been inherently musical, and extremely jealous of those who are, I found this a great read. It really shows the amount of care that goes into creating a fine piece of music.

"In the studio, a number of things can conspire to turn the natural act of making music into an awkward dance. First there is no audience, no one to impress. Second is the temptation to be too careful, to isolate every sound and not let it mingle with other sounds. The third deals with the voice, the most personal and vulnerable instrument. Recording vocals can be fraught with aural illusions akin to the weirdness of hearing your own voice on your answering machine. 'That’s not me, is it?'"

Read the article here.

And for those new to Andrew, here's the video to his song, "Imitosis"...

Melville on the Tattoo

"carlatattoo4 butterfly tattoo" by Beautiful wwworld's

I have recently been reading "Moby Dick," and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is not simply a book as an almanac to the mystical moments surrounding every second of our lives.

One of my favorite characters in the book is Queequeg, the heavily tattooed harpooner and close friend of the narrator, Ishmael.

Being a rather tattooed person myself, I was struck by this one passage about Queequeg and his tattoos. To me, it encapsulates what is so wonderful about this timeless artform...

"...this tattooing, had been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wonderous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even he himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unresolved to the last. And this thought it must have been which suggested to Ahab that wild exclamation of his, when one morning turning away from surveying poor Queequeg - "Oh, devilish tantalization of the gods!"

Inspiring Words by Zolton

I came across this post from Zolton of Lost at E Minor yesterday, and knew completely where he was coming from. I am quite an A type, and I feel like these words really sum up what it's like to live every day on that level...


Out of the whirlwind, Originally uploaded by mseidman

"On my best days I feel just like a great white shark. Not all-conquering and indestructible — though I have my moments — but rather that if I ever stop moving, if I take a moment to correct myself in the full glare of the light, I’ll probably sink. I think this a sentiment typical of our time: we’re a people of movers, a swarm of busy-ness. We’re motivated not so much by greed as we are by an overriding fear of failure. And as a result, we create, we experience, and we consume far more than anyone else before us. We’re individualists, yet form clusters within. We’re dreamers, wheelers and schemers. We’re movers. Generation text? The baby boomboxers? Whatever. We defy categorisation because we don’t stay in one place — neither physically, mentally nor emotionally - long enough to own it. Our world gets smaller by the second and as it does, the mystery … the joyous excitement of new discovery, becomes less definable. How nice would it be to strip back the fine layers of resilience to leave us all vulnerable for a while. To feel the rawness of each new breath as it surges through our lungs. To be exposed to the realness of it all. At least for a day or two. Or until the next series of Temptation Island hits the screens."

This week has been a particularly rough whirlwind, and I find myself continuing to return to these words, as if they were some sort of spiritual anchor. Thanks Zolton :)