How things build themselves : the river metaphor

Gilbert Durand is known his work on the imaginary, and symbolic anthropology.

He sees things evolving like rivers.

Of course, the game is to use this on whatever you want, like fashions, history, art, events, philosophy or literature.

Here are the words he uses :

1. Streaming : currents and fountains, sometimes from distant pasts, resurgences, or born from events.
2. Watersheds : some streams gather, creating frontiers with other streams, some fights can burst.
3. Confluences : a current is reinforced, valued by other streams, which are like helping figures.
4. Names : the river is named, typified, characters (real or imaginary) are linked to it.
5. Banks layout : consolidation (reality, style) happens, come the theoriticians and “second”  founders, thinkers – sometimes with rises and floods : exaggerations.
6. Exhaustion & deltas : meandering causes derivations, divisions, and other rivers cant melt.

 

Where will you use this, and how, and what can it bring to your thinking activity?

Thanks for reading!

 

Stages of how men explained the world

For no reason, here are some chronological stages of how men explained the world

1. Animism : The belief that objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence.
2. Totemism : The tendency of definite social units to become associated with objects and symbols of emotional value.
3. Religion : A cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, world views, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements.
4. Mythology : A folklore genre consisting of narratives or stories that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. The main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans.
5. Science : A systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.

 

Then we can have fun to extract the structure of these stairs, just to apply it on another field.

Or pick up a theme, for example : “Animals”. Totems and first gods (or Egyptian myths) are often animals, then they become human-like, but have natural assets (Zeus and thunder) or sidekick animals.

Or you can fight this, telling that it’s nested and layered, that science uses mythology’s names, for example, or that one comes before the other.

Or you can watch the concept of stories : in religion, most people believe the stories, some think it’s parables. In early centuries, myths were already seen has stories which contains a knowledge.

Have fun!

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

Julie Andrews Appreciation

I have two daughters and Mary Poppins has been the perfect Christmas movie for years.

Of course I saw the Archetype in Mary, the Disturber :

1. Mary Poppins & Teorema & My Uncle : Stories of Revealers
2. Bifaceted Mary Poppins

 

There’s another happy family in holidays typical movie : The Sound of Music. She doesn’t fit in religion, then she takes care of a family of 7 children and a military father, bringing fantasy, fun, art and music and freedom in a ruled and disciplined world, making everything explode, like a free democrat happy elf in a “obey the law” tea party.

 

These two movies can make you think. Andrews represents arts and freedom and laughters, breathing life into rules and order, that’s right. But it’s not that simple : it’s not a Democrat wizard laughing in a GOP frowned white men (though it sometimes really looks like it – Von Trap is a soldier and Mr Banks works in… a bank) : Andrews is VERY English, almost aristocratic, and if she’s magic (Mary) or a free happy spirit (Maria), she breaks rules with a bit of order (cleaning rooms, learning songs). She refuses to obey the whistle, but she’s never a tramp. That’s interesting, like every bifaceted person.

Well, she saved both fathers, right? One from greed, the other from sadness…

 

More : I’ll go on in December watching other diamonds with Andrews : Darling Lili, Star, the absolutely crazy Thoroughly Modern Millie, the hilarious and bitter S.O.B. and Victor Victoria.

I’m amazed (and a bit in love) with this Archetype : crazy but capable of work, rules breaker, but in order to build something, socially very smart but a breaker of closed doors and forbidden things (like having tea, floating in the air, or climbing trees with children).

Climb trees and gather shells, silly!

Disobey and don’t break the law, but the stupid rules, yes!

Thanks Julie.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

PS : Watch Modern Millie, OK?

Thoroughly_Modern_Millie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An embarrassing rigmaroling douchebag : the ambitious

Y’all workers know the type : bossy boots, low level managers and tinpot dictators. They are proud to have their cap. They are useless and painful, and voilà. There are many ways of dealing with these donkeys, from murder to indifference by way of traps and other methodical counter-attacks. Weapon of choice!

As pronounced the wise man : one can take everything, but they won’t have my soul, EVER.

 

Nope, the douchebag of the day is the ambitious. It’s another type (though they’re cousins, right?).

The ambitious is at the bottom, but he wants to climb in the hierarchy. The ambitious has plenty of self-confidence, and a big, wooden, stubborn, strongly nutty stupid head. Watch him :

• He lies. He reports and denounces. He has/fakes seriousness. He always seems “busy”. He is a bit agitated, like a hen, when a manager is around. He has “ideas” : the ambitious he is, and he has :

…the whole rigmarole, the whole panoply, the whole outfit and the whole shebang!

 

We ALL know the type, right?

What do they want, each of them?

The cap, silly! A little power that would make them important.

There’s no need to analyze further. It’s just another “bad sign”. Watch them move and talk like a living donkeypoo, but not too long. It’s too… embarrassing and somewhat gross, like a infirm hirsute farting dirty spider…

 

Have a nice day!

 

 

 

Hicks lunch-mosquitoezing at work : What to do?

It’s lunch break.

You Introvert, I know you! You have your quiet spot to eat, right?…

Suddenly you hear what seems to be a one-man band screaming his joy, yelling in laughter, bringing a small group into noisy happiness. Hahaha!

Hicks.

1. They are happy
2. They are noisy
3. They like pranks
4. Rib-tickling funny stories they love
5. They speak like “He said this – then I said that”, in loops
6. They have big voices
7. They love TV
8. Laughing hard

You inner-facepalm while you have to eat, then you need strategies.

1. Go out for a walk under the trees.
2. Choose weird hours to eat in quiet.
3. Read
4. Mentally train yourself to close your ears
5. Find another human-being to conversation with
6. Earphones
7. Acceptance Amor-Fati driven
8. Wait for coffee breaks : they smoke (they always smoke)

You can quit, but that’s silly. Hicks are like mosquitoes. Everywhere.

Have a nice day!

The Quirky Dance of Double Rejection

When I was in my twenties I was reading all Chögyam Trungpa‘s books. This guy (a “preeminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism”) taught me many things. One of them was :

“Let go when someone tells you to get lost”

Trungpa says that if you nag & beg this person, then you’ll become a demon (he uses this word). I didn’t find again the exact quote, but I remember he was also talking about this image :

1. The rejecter is walking, he says “get lost”.
2. The rejected is begging and becomes a demon.

Well, I think we’ve all been there, that makes sense, right? This article is about what happens next.

• The rejected understands.
• Stops walking, and shuts up.
• (It’s his way to say : “Fine! Get lost too!”)
• He walks again, back on his own path.
• Silent double walk.

See me coming? Yes you do! OK, take a deep breath and visualize this :

• The rejecter slows down, now, thoughtfully.
• Then he walks in front of the other walker.
• He says : “Let’s talk”.
• The other walker doesn’t slow down, thinking the three-letters : “WTF”.
• He walks, it’s his turn to say “Get lost!”.
• Voilà!

It’s why I called quirky this strange dance, which exist between complicated lovers of course, but also between friends, family, spouses, siblings, companies, etc.

The rejecter rejects then is being rejected by the one he rejected when he doesn’t want to reject the other one anymore.

Make a loop of this. Dance.

Dial, then Lever :

What do we do of this dial? What does that mean? Is there an invisible string between the two walkers, a bond? What should they do? What should they say? How to stop the dance? Walk on more distant path? Having fun eventually? Realize it’s a dance and it could be great? Tango?

Thanks for reading!

 

Instagram : such_a_pretty_crazy

Inner Doppelganger Turmoil

Last week I had to talk for five minutes with a 25 years old woman, and this demoiselle probably saw my eyes growing and gazing at her with conturmoilfusion, while I was trying not to show it.

No she wasn’t transforming herself into a chorizo-nosed beaver : It was me. I was victim of the Inner Doppelganger schock.

Yeahhh you know the legend : each person has a doppelganger, somewhere on Earth. And it’s disturbing to meet someone’s look-alike, right?

This lady looked like a friend of mine, but… not that much. But her voice was the same. Then the way she talked was the same. Then the way she was moving was the same. Then the way she stood up was the same. Her silhouette and height were the same. Then the kind of books she was talking about was from the same field the “original” one liked…

Not outside doppelganger : inner doppelganger.

I wonder what it means, but I immediately thought of R. Sheldrake, who invented the concept of the morphic fields, which he extended to collective inconscious, etc. Strange attractors…

So, like Archetypes, there is maybe only a finite number of “ways of developing”. Maybe, in certain conditions (education, peoples around, etc), you can begin a personality which is almost the same as someone else. Like an doppelganger of the inside!

Thanks for reading!

 

Decorticate Genius & Laughing Ferrymen

One of the best things, in the world of books and ideas, is to hear a passionate lecture by someone who knows a style, an author, a field, a book.

Some writers are great teachers. Umberto Eco‘s essays are delicious (so Italian!). The literature classes of Nabokov are fabulous (so Russian?). Some guys have this talent to tell you how and why some classics are relevant, interesting and useful even in your little lives.

Le Misanthrope is a French play from the 17th Century. I just read a book from Fabrice Luchini (“Comédie Française, ça a débuté comme ça”), a French actor who tried to write his autobiography, but offered, in fact, pages of passionate lectures about French poetry (Rimbaud), theater (Molière) or prose (Céline), telling us how and why these authors are so enthralling (giving all details he learned as a skilled actor : rhythm, words, sentences, concepts – we French love words, you know that, right?).

Decorticate and peel genius, and offer the recipe to others.

Well, I won’t do it for you now, but I have a slicexample. Luchini evokes Le Misanthrope, a French play by Molière, 17th Century, and a dialog between two friends. One is the misanthrope, angry against humanity (the full text translated in English is here). The other one trying to tame… Let’s see :

Alceste : …times I feel suddenly inclined to fly into a wilderness far from the approach of men.

Philinte : …let us torment ourselves a little less about the vices of our age, and be a little more lenient to human nature. Let us not scrutinize it with the utmost severity, but look with some indulgence at its failings.

Sometimes with are Alceste, grouchy against fashion bloggers, or people with 4879 friends of Facebook incapable of communicate with real people around, and at other times we are more like Philinte, trying to understand that these people… do what they can, that they struggle a lot, they try to live, to love, to stand up alive. Maybe they’re unbearable, but they’re not guilty! It’s a balance, a swaying, wavering between both. Haecceity! This is life…

One of my pleasure these days is to discover these authors, I could call them the ferrymen.

Who are yours? Who do you lecture? Do you remember the way you laughed with jubilation? With who?

Thanks for reading!

The “Uncanny valley” of Sick #Robots

Wikipedia : The uncanny valley is the hypothesis that human replicas which appear almost, but not exactly, like real human beings elicit feelings of eeriness and revulsion among some observers.

So, a robot should look like a robot. If it’s too close of a human being (“near realistic but imperfect”), it’ll be rejected. Because, probably, your instinct sees something slightly wrong, and therefore the robot seems ILL.

Of course, it’s interesting to try to understand how it works, because it’s more subtle than that. And also : what are the ways to avoid this uncannyness? Can people get used to it?

 

Instagram : ___bodylanguage___

Faire à manger (to cook), Faire pipi (to pee). In France, we “faire” a lot…

In France we make love, but we also make food (faire à manger), make some jogging (faire du jogging), and we make some boat too (faire du bateau).

I really don’t know why we French do this, the “faire” thing, and I wonder if there’s another language with this mess.

More : we all know that our “way of thinking” in the world is like built in the language. What does it imply?

A few more examples to play with :

• Faire du gringue : to flirt.
• Faire fi : to ignore.
• Faire du vélo : to bike.
• En faire une maladie : to have a fit (oh?).

Strangely enough, in France we say “prendre une douche”, like in English “to take a shower”. Italian people, though, “fare una doccia” : to make a shower”!

Thanks for reading!

Instagram : francescasomavilla

Axes, Axis, Axles : “Become who you are”

Among all the empty phrases we find everywhere in the Self Help garden rubbish, I love this one :

“Become who you are”

You could examine this for hours just for having fun, like in front of a stupid golden loop, an exploding immobility, a… mysterious goal. Because, oui, bien sûr : how the hell could I become another person but who I am? Google it if you want, you’ll find the habitual waste : sunsets, roads, inspirational landscapes…

But Okayyyy, there’s something right into it. Which is this : we grow up, we become adults, and when we reach the middle of our life, where we know ourselves more :

• Some parts of us became soft and rotten, they went to pieces and fell.
• Some other parts became more solid, muscled.

A double process! From this process, some axes cleared and appeared, voilà. This is or these are your strong lines. I can be to “find love”, to be a wife, to take care of others, to be a parent, to work, to travel or to be creative. Your find, one day, your dominant trait. You became who you are… or at least,  you know more… what you would like to be!

There can be, I’m sure, some inferior axes : being famous, to be entertained continuously (bonjour kidults!), piling money, or to “appear happy” in the social media selfies big dumpster. Whatever : comes a day you know what is your main Axis.

The uncompleteness we all know (“something’s lacking in my life, but what?”) could ensue from the gap between what we do and what we should do, according to our axes. “Become who you are” could be a way to fill in this gap…

One could imagine that we invent some false axes : the real one then could show up suddenly after a shock or a crisis.

Take the exemple of the Sylvia Plath syndrome, a person who absolutely wants to publish a book. One day, the book is there, and the axis disappeared immediately : it leaves this person completely indifferent. We could call this the “So what” disillusion. This needs another article, right?

Axis disappearance. Axis revelation. Axes are maybe like milk teeth : you have some when you’re young, then another one emerges when you become an adult. Become who you are. Okayyyyy…

Thanks for reading!

“Biases to Pieces” – when life goes wrong, do something unusual – #change

When something goes wrong in our lives, we try to find solutions, we meet people or therapists, we try to entertain, we read, we think, we cry, et cetera.

There’s also this oblique tool : do something unusual. Change something, hair, paths, house, habits, anything. Dare, and be a little more casual. Breathe a new air, open unusual windows. This is a beginning. It can work, or not. So what?

If you know how to wait, your “charge” will inflate up until you’ll explode into a solution. This is where you will be able to say afterwards : “I can’t even recognize my own soul”, which is another way to say “What did I do?”. So what??

Whatever! : change was urgent, and needed.

Tools :

Stay on you horse, let go the reins, and go faster. Let the horse choose.

Your need to be disturbed is there, and it’s HUGE. Try disturbing paths. Push unknown doors. Walk forward in unknown places and ways.

Do the contrary. Love the guy you don’t love. Choose the opposite. Say no to your yesses and yes to your nos. Try random. Be crazy. Quit. Don’t explain. Shut up and move. Search for your fears and attack them. Slam the door to reason’s face and listen to your guts. Find your wolf inside (or your dark parrot). Take your biases to pieces. Burn your bridges. Or not. Or for a moment. Step inside, step back, breathe back home. Push nugget-risks inside the grey. Find your explosives. Use them where you never did. Bam.

Merci ! Thanks for reading!

 

Instagram : thejohnnysmith

Loaf & Book : The Feng Shui of Things

The loaf, on the table, is upside down. Do you turn it up? Yes you do.

The book, on the shelf, is upside down. Do you turn it up? Yes too.

Why?

OK, it’s meant to be on the correct side. And it’s ugly to watch. Or you “feel” the bread and the book despair, you want to save them from uncomfortability.

Feng shui is about “harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment”. It’s interesting to explore, though I mainly relate to my instinct “does this look right or not?” instead of << rules >>.

Most of the time, the rules of Feng shui corroborate my instinct. For example : when you lie in your bed, ready to sleep, you HAVE to be able to see the door, right? You could say it’s only logical but you know it’s not only logical. You feel it. Like the poor bread loaf, gasping for help like a dying tortoise it is.

• En aparté, from aside, I would like to tell you something :
• In French we do not have a word for a loaf (well, there’s a word, une miche (pronounce mish), but we don’t use it), we say “un pain” (a bread).
• For a slice of bread, we have “une tartine” (say tarteen), but we often say “du pain”.
• So, well, we miss a loaf word, but you miss a tartine word too. Pffff…
• Instead of “spreading something of a slice of bread”, we say the verb : tartiner.

Harmony, balance, l’équilibre. It’s probably an old instinct we have, right? Or is it an Interesting Braid between instinct and logic?

Tool : Bwaaah you got it, right? Where will you apply that? Things and places, but also? What could be a Feng shui of poetry? Of photography?

Thanks for reading!

Instagram : loudesvilles_

 

 

Is it OK to be a #Muse ? Part II #Inspiration

I tried one day to write about the idea of a muse. It was hard so I just asked questions. Today I will play it further.

In history, the idea of the muse is a bit too much “charged”. A muse is a woman who “inspires” a male artist, right?

I’m not talking about this at all. I dance here with the adult concept of the Muse (and I add a capital to the word), the tool, the pattern if you want. Call it SuperMuse (oh I like this word!) or HyperFriend if you want. Here are a few tracks :

• What do you do as a Muse? You disturb, you ask, you laugh, you listen carefully, you fight, you understand, you don’t understand, you give seeds, you play, you offer, you smile, you sparkle, you inspire, you surprise, you disagree, you push, you coach, you disappear, you help, you think, you give birth, you take care, you are present…
• It’s a fulltime or a “sometime” process. You can be a Muse for 5 minutes a month.
• To be a Muse is a decision. A smiling one. It’s a friendship most of the time.
• To be Muse is often to be a Double Muse, a vice-versa game : you are a Muse to each other.
• To be a Muse is a part time job. You need to be alone, and in your own life sometimes. Good. You plug as a Muse when you want it.
• To be a Muse is important in both ways. You give your Muse part because it’s a matter of generosity. You welcome it with gratitude, because you know the other works and thinks of you as a Muse. It’s a role, yes.
• A Muse is also a part of disruption, disturbance. Our need to be disturbed is (sometimes) real. Sometimes we ask for it. Sometimes we don’t even know it.
• The Muse thing is a joy, and a bond. Sparkling seeds is a happiness.
• A Muse sometimes doesn’t know what to do. There’s an easiness in being a Muse. You have the right to be fragile, too.
• You can apply and use it and ask for it on little areas of your life. On love, on art, on writing, on job, movies, pictures, inventing : anything.
• You can be explicit if you know a friend of yours who can be a Muse : “I need you for my novel”, or “I think you need me for your management issues, am I right?”.
• You will maybe have to define rules about the rich “Double Muse Activity”.
• A Muse can be a muse without any knowledge of being a muse. As a fan, you can use “the existence of the artist you love” as inspiration. After a bereavement (oh a new word for me!), you can work for the memory of someone, or using the “what if he/she was here?” tool).
• I really think we can incarnate as a Mood Muse. Some people can (and know they can) bring you something : a calm, a happiness, a security, an energy, a focus, an accuracy, a way of being ignorant. Your best friend can do that. Your parents too. Yes they do.

What do think about having a Muse, about being one?

 

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Today I reached my 50th follower on WordPress, thank you for reading!

 

Instagram : pavel_fedoseyev

In #French #Zodiac, a Virgo is a… Virgin, oops!… ( #language & #astrology )

Well, that’s true. In English you have a very poetic way to name zodiac signs. In French we stay closer to… to what, after all?

A Virgo is a Virgin in France, une Vierge. So you can imagine the embarrassment of a Virgo when she’s asked, and the smart smiles of the guys, haha.

What else? Aries is un Bélier (a Ram). Leo is just a Lion. Libra : Balance (it’s Scale, yesss). And Pisces are Poissons (Fishes, yep).

How about your language?

I’m a Taurus. Hi! I post the positive keywords, OK? The negative? Well…

Thanks for reading! Bonne journée !

 

The Ravel’s Bolero Syndrome : when you know someone from ONE thing only

Some names are well known for only ONE work, one event, one place.

Dorothea Lange is well known for “this” picture only. Maurice Ravel is linked for ever to his Bolero. The city of Agra with the Taj Mahal. The Korgis have a great hit : “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime”. Where’s the rest?

I call it The Ravel Syndrome. The structure is : “Something is known for ONE thing and the rest is globally ignored”. It’s not necessarily one work, it can be one domain : for example, Chekhov is very well know for his theater, and nobody knows his short stories.

This dial should lead us to take the wheel, think, and explore. Lange probably took other good pictures, Ravel composed a great Daphnis & Chloe and his concertos for piano are fantastic, Agra is full of great other places to visit. The Korgis, well, I don’t knowww (there are pages of lists of “One Hit Singers” on the web)…

There are two lessons to get from this :

• This flaw could be called “Hit Laziness”. Let’s enter the house and discover the other rooms, why not try to see what the artist has behind his “hit”. Maybe treasures?
• “Someone is known for ONE thing and the rest is globally ignored” can be very cruel. I think of Monica Lewinsky, which is probably a much more interesting person than this label you just put on her, in your mind. Hmmm?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

The “Part of Shadow” according to C.G. #Jung : an investigation

As usual, everywhere you will read or hear this advice : “Kill your demons!”. A few days ago a friend of mine sent me the contrary :

Feed Your Demons

Haha, of course I liked it! And I remembered the concept of Shadow, from C.G. Jung. This needed an inquiry.

Evidently I found quotes :

“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.” C.G. Jung

“Kill off all my demons and my angels might die too.” Tennessee Williams

“Wherever there is human nature, there is drama.” Agatha Christie

Of course, psychoanalysis doesn’t really “know” what is this strange concept of Shadow. An Archetype? A dark part of the subconscious? Jung says it’s :

“inferior, primitive, inappropriate, unfortunate, but not absolutely bad”. 

I explored a little (it is an inquiry, and I am just an ideas forager) and found these :

• The Shadow is hidden, and resists the analysis.
• It’s an archetypal force, a character.
• It bursts at some moments. When you lose your mind, it’s your Shadow taking control. People say, then, someone touched a raw nerve. You seem incoherent.
• It’s felt like a negative, strong force, it’s frightening for you, it’s frightening for others.
• You can’t and shouldn’t kill or tame your Shadow. You have to know it, how it’s triggered, and accept it’s in you, powerful and dark.
• The Shadow speaks to you sometimes, in dreams.
• The Shadow is what your refuse to see or recognize in you.
• The Shadow is also made of your inner capabilities you couldn’t develop.
• So the Shadow is like your dead twin, hidden in you, weakened or weird.
• If you are shy, your Shadow is probably a strong personality. If you’re an adventurer, your Shadow is maybe a coward in slippers.
• What we hate or fear in other people is because it’s similar with our own Shadow.
• Yes, Darth Vader is absolutely like an incarnation of the Shadow (masked, dark, family).
• Jekyll & Hyde, Beauty & Beast are stories about a Shadow made alive.
• The Shadow is a Force, it’s primitive and childish, it can help you, it can be the source of your development.
• Some weakened aspect of the Shadow are forgotten or shy qualities. You just were not allowed or have the force to grow them.
• Apparition of the Shadow is often triggered by something external. A situation, or someone.
• It’s so strong that you look that this guy riding the back of a Tiger. It’s dangerous, but full of power.
• In a crowd, the Shadows of all the people can be mobilized…
• The Shadow is maybe linked to the Collective Unconscious.
• Your Shadow can not be tamed. Be you can get to know her/him. And be friends, eventually.

There are books about this, of course. It’s a fantastic concept who can be :

1. a tool (how will you use and know your Shadow?)
2. a lever (which is the door to this creature)
3. a dial (watch you when you act incoherent, in burst, in anger – and watch the people around you, your lover and others).

 

Thanks for reading !

Feel free to follow me (bottom right of this page, yes, there).

Have a nice day. And feed your demon 🙂

 

 

 

Photo : Instagram : kersti__k

#fury #furious #animals #bird #pig #lille

Bicycle Renting & Wheels Encounters

Yesterday I learned a new English word : “rad”. I’m trying to place it somewhere, but it’s hard. What (or who is) “rad”, these days?

Lille is a city in the North of France. We have a bicycle renting package here, and you find stations with a few dozens bikes a little everywhere in the city. You just pay a few Euros a year and you can pick up a bike whenever you want. They called it “V’Lille”, how smart.

You just have to push a card on a screen, type a 4 digits code. Then you choose your machine, you ride it, you bring up the right pedal and you go girl!

Each time I just need a few rolls to “analyse” my new encounter. Because each bike has its own personality, right?

• Some are just noisy, they squeak and they grate. Faster you go, faster it squeaks. Skouic skouic -> skouicskouicskouicskouic.
• Some are jammed on one brake, so you have to pedal harder. That’s life, boy! Pedal. Exercise is good for health. Pff pff pff (it’s your breath).
• Some are just broken. Or the chain is out of it. You put it back and pick another one. The tacit code is to reverse the seat and put it to the downest (yess I know it’s not English but you got me).
• Some bikes are just slightly twisted. The wheel and the handlebars are not in the same direction. Just a little, but it’s enough to bike weirdodidily. Your brain is like “more focused”. Your eyes are wide opened mangalike because… just because.
• Sometimes the seat is just wrongly tilted. Towards the head and you’re afraid to fall on the bar, ouchy (ayeu). Towards the tail and you look like a pedalling tortoise under caffeine.

Isn’t this a good metaphor for people? You meet someone (at work, for example) and you immediatly begin to listen to their words, the way they talk, the way they move or look around. Dials everywhere in your head. And then, you have to adapt. Some persons are slow, slightly twisted, broken, etc… We just have to deal with this.

Sometimes, though, you find a good bike. Yeyyyy! A rad one! You would like to add a little sign on them. Biking, then, c’est délicieux, vraiment délightful. You don’t wanna give it back! Evidently; ’cause a good bike is hard to find. I’d go anywhere with this one. Can I keep it, mister mayor?

 

How OK is it to be a muse ? Questions

A Muse ?

OK I have some questions…

Is a muse aware of… being a muse to another person ? Why do we think about a woman when we see the word “muse” ? How could we analyse the alchemy between a muse and the person she inspires ? Can you be a muse for a long time ? The other person grows thanks to the muse, gets inspiration. Is it the same for the muse herself ? Can you be muse without drama ? Is a muse a disturbing person for the partner ? Are you a muse because of the way you talk ? Listen ? Act ? Can you imagine a couple of muses ? A muse to a muse and vice versa ? Is a muse a helping hand (“just climb this stair, mate”) ? Muses are often seen in the Art territory : can you be a muse for life ?

Send me other questions, dear reader and muses : I’ll add them to this list. jeanpascal at wanadoo.fr

Chekhov, Fellini and Sisyphus’ lesson : “Slide, mortals, don’t bear down”

Our need of consolation and comfort is huge, but you know, we all have to stand up and go on living. The Sisyphus myth is a great one to help us :

He was punished by gods by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him, repeating this action for eternity. Camus, the French philosopher, wrote an entire book about this, as a metaphor of the absurdity of human life, but he wrote also :

“one must imagine Sisyphus happy”

There’s another sentence I like, in French it’s : “Glissez mortels, n’appuyez pas” – “Slide, mortals, don’t bear down”. It’s maybe a way to say “Don’t be so serious”, but also “Taste life as it comes”, or maybe “Smile, whatever happens”, and also “Dance with what you get (the ice), and stop WANTING this or that”. Slide means also : light and fast. Casual ? Oh, you knoooowww, I’m French, so I fancy to add this one too 🙂

It’s so short and great :

“Slide, mortals, don’t bear down”

In Fellini’s movies, it’s the way Mastroianni wanders into life and interact with people. Elegant, but casual too. In Chekhov, it’s a way of saying without really saying “we all fail, that’s life, we do what we can”, maybe we should have, but we did not. In Tennessee William’s work, it’s in the style and the way he constructs stories : he DARES, he’s cool, he’s almost dangerous. I found it also in the way you can examine some complex Art pieces, from opera to modern music : if you’re too serious, you’re bored. Have a drink, smile and maybe add a little frenchiness to it. Slide, mortals, don’t bear down…

Tool : Find yours. It’s an elegant way to be there without being there really. A casualness, a lightness, a way to smile, a way to dare, also, a way to say “no” to be totally serious. This is not THAT important…

In a way, Sisyphus tells many things : smile, breathe, dance, adapt, be flexible, listen, stand up, be a dolphin. And get up and push and roll your rock up. Move forward too.

Sorry for my English, good people. If you find strong mistakes, just let me know, OK ?