Tag: wisdom
Rat race for ‘happiness’
Recently, came across the ‘Happiness’ cartoon by Steve Cutts (2017). The genius of this art piece is in its blunt message. It makes one see the rat race routine from a side to realize something. Have you wondered, where we all are than much in a rush? For what good (if any good) we run?
How much the rush for happiness is imposed (prescribed) and how much is self-initiated? Can it be both?
On the Danger of Habit
The life of a philistine is as prosaic as the life of the sheep from the old Georgian parable:
“the sheep spent its whole life fearing wolves, but in the end, it was the shepherd who ate it.”
Often, danger does not come from circumstances beyond one’s control, nor from people who pose an obvious threat, but from those who constitute the ordinary course of life and, due to their familiarity, are perceived as normal, as natural.
Who is the shepherd in this proverb?
The shepherd is the one who “feeds”, who influences daily routines, who defines the world and one’s perception of it. With their care and boundaries, they protect but also limit possibilities. Perhaps in the wild, such a sheep would not live long, but how different its life would certainly be compared to the routine of “field-pasture-field.” Would the sheep be as “useful” in freedom as it is within the confines of the flock? That is an interesting question, worthy of an answer. And something tells me that the answer depends on the perspective from which it is given—that of the shepherd, the sheep, or the wolf.
Do other people irritate you?
“For every person, their neighbor is a mirror from which their own vices look back at them. But a person acts like a dog that barks at the mirror, thinking it sees not itself but another dog.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
«Для каждого человека ближний — зеркало, из которого смотрят нанего его собственные пороки. Но человек поступает при этом как собака, которая лает на зеркало, предполагая, что видит там не себя, а другую собаку». А. Шопенгауэр