Flounceness Quietism

Quietism is a doctrine introduced from Spain to France in the XVIIth Century.

It’s an interesting thing to study even if you’re not a believer!

You just had to find a state, a calm quiet state, to reach, without all the flounces and frills of rites and charity, a total simple communion with God.

In a way, that’s convenient, like a Zen idea of religion : no need to pray or fast to reach a state of perfection, an easy sinless (as you don’t have to obey millions of rules) and sacramentless state.

“…neither fear of punishment nor desire for the reward of eternal life having anything to do with this pure love of God.”

So it’s been a great fight in France between Fenelon, an archbishop and Bossuet, a theologian and orator (you can Wikipedia all this, it’s quite funny).

Adoration, cut from all terrestrial ties, redacted from any search of “rewards”, or fear of punishments : no more prayers, confessions, fear of hell, no more care of Jesus and all questions about this.

 

The tool here is :

What if you suppress all intermediaries? What if you reach the source? What if you focus on the core? What frills and rites do you kill?

Where do we find that? Hierarchies? Politics? Tell me…

 

Thanks for reading!

 

#Pray for “insert place here”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer

I recognize it : I’m a miscreant, an unbeliever. There’s no hell, but well, if there’s a bloody one, I probably already have my ticket!

War horrors, terrorist attacks, earthquakes and alphabetical hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katia) are killing people and children, it’s a real mess.

Therefore there’s a constant flood, in social medias, of “Pray for Mexico”, “Pray for Paris”, “Pray for Houston”… “Pray for – insert place here“.

As an atheist, it’s a bit strange, of course. I respect prayers, but I do wonder…

• Do people really pray, or is it just a way of saying “I think of you”?
• If you really pray, do you think you’re heard?
• If there’s a God, does He “need” your prayers to act?
• Is there a quota, a number of prayers needed to reach Him?
• If God hears prayers, what does he do, THEN?
• Has someone already got an answer? Maybe a sign?
• If it gets worse – as usual – is it because He didn’t hear the prayers?
• Why wouldn’t He?
• Or is it a punishment? Like “I did hear your prayer, but… Nope”.
• Is He confused by contradictory prayers? If He is not, how does He chose His camp?
• Which God do you pray according you’re in this or this country? The local One?
• What is a prayer? Is there a typical one, or do you just “ask”?
• Is a prayer a monolog? Is it listened immediately, or later?
• If you don’t believe, can you pray? Thus, what can happen?
• Is this gesture necessary to pray?
• Is it better to pray in silence or voice?
• Could we imagine preventive prayers, like “Please God don’t hurricane Miami, my granma lives there”?
• If yes, does God have a power on meteorological events, earthquakes (really?) or bombing terrorist brains?
• Do you need emojis to add to your social media prayers?
• What if this emoji was a high five instead of praying hands?

 

 

“What are amulets?” – Don’t expect salvation from an external principle

What are talimans, amulets? Don’t expect salvation from an external principle

This intriguing assertion comes from Friedrich Georg Jünger, Ernst Jünger’s brother. It’s like a warning against a useless tool.

And apart from medical issues maybe, I like to keep it in mind. If you want to stop smoking for example, you can use patches or pills or therapy or whatever, but the solution comes from you : discipline. The rest is nothing. You’re in charge. Take care.

Thanks for reading!

Instagram : tombeeducamion

Hey, How do YOU keep yourself together?

The title was tricky to find. I wrote, in my French way, “How do you keep standing up”, but it’s not very very good, right? “How do you keep yourself from falling apart” is better, but, hem, a bit dramatic, no?

So I ask you, readers ! How do you keep yourself together?

So many answers! You can cuddle like a cat, under the warm blanket of your family.

You can drink or use another substance (food? drugs?) to get a little rid of reality.

Sex?

You can do sports, of course, it works for many people! Run, just run. Buy the good clothes before you run, you need’em. Run after something, or after nothing, it works too. Move heavy rocks. That’s good. Be a fan.

You can try to entertain : be a tourist, watch a movie, listen to some music, cook, read a book, appreciate some form of Art. Be creative, if you can. That’s pretty noble, dear!

Oh, I forgot : work! I’m pretty sure that all workaholics are just big-worried people who run all day to forget they will die… or just the boredom seriousdom of their choices. Be a little solemn with your work. You’ll feel important. It’s VERY good.

You can also spend time with a good friend who, that’s so coincidental, tries also to keep herhimself from falling apart. Then, you both look like two wounded guys in the WWI standing up holding each other walking in the mud.

You can do like me, overthinking your shit, find pattern and structures, inventing rarely effective tools to… keep yourself together, and blog this shit out just to purge your congested head. Color it your way : University-ish, Sarcasm, Humor, Crafty. Guess what I chose today!…

Religion! Your local God fixes everything.

Help others

BUT

(because, of course, what is interesting here is that does not work, and, blah, you will fall apart, eventually)

In family paradise you slowly realize you’re drowning in your own sugar, juices and secretions. You boil to get out!

Drugs leads to oblivion, but also to stupidity and mistakes. Sports to accidents. Entertain to emptiness. Creativity to the white page. Work means time burning AND money, which can provide “some” happiness, as you know (buying is good do keep yourself together for an hour, and it also works the economy of your nation).

Friends, as human beings, stay a good solution, and they can help you to find (and do together, why not) other ways of escaping keeping  yourself together. Problem is they fall in love with a Prince/Princess, and then you look like nothing in loop.

Religion is good, because it’s mainly following some damn rules. You don’t have to think much. If you feel churchy, the main problem comes from the moment you realize there’s no God (or if it exists, it doesn’t care at all). Then, you fall apart, bim.

Tool :

No tool here. Breathe. Life is short. Find your own way. Dance with all of them. Ask about others. Be kind. We all struggle, right? Don’t fall. Not today. Not today.

 

Thanks for reading!

Why I’m so fascinated by the Americans…

I am and I will always be fascinated by the Americans.

I have pinned a map of the USA in my bathroom. I wander over it daily. I own books and books about America. Abraham Lincoln. Civil War. History. Daily life. Photographs. Culture. Etc…

We sometimes accuse Americans to be centered on their own country, but I didn’t even know that Boston was near the ocean, and nobody in France have a clue of what happens today in Albuquerque or Phoenix ! So there…

I love Americans because when you talk with them you quickly go to a place when you realise that they all come from Europa (or elsewhere, OK). They’re American but they come from Ireland, Norway, Germany or… France. Bonjour !

I love Americans because they… love the French. I don’t know really why. C’est l’amour ! Because we helped them in their Revolution ? Or maybe because of the food, or the way we take our time, I don’t know. And I think they’re fascinated by the way we talk, the way we use the letter “r” (try to say “ARBRE”, please) : Voilà, enfin, donc, encore, and… Allez !

I love Americans because they live in places I saw in movies (they go to the restaurant in Bodega bay (Hitchcock : The Birds), grow in Kansas (Wizard of Oz), or talk in Manhattan (whatever…)). They invented William Faulkner, Joseph Losey and Saul Leiter. And they saved our French ass in 1944 !

Of course, sometimes we don’t understand them quite well, because of religion, or the guns, or Trump, but “it is what it is”. I love their idioms. When I hear “Shit hits the fan”, I understand it quite well !

I love to learn words like “to elope”, “Intertwined” or “Rattletrap”. I love to learn strange things like “I’m a hop skip and a jump away from”.

Learning a  new language (and getting deeper into it) is a huge pleasure for me. So many times I’ve been helped by Americans about : subtilities, idioms, pronunciation, etc.

Americans, I noticed, have a special way to listen. If you take a breath because you want to talk, they immediatly “stop and listen”, and say “Sorry”, or “Go on”, which is a bit weird at times : we French constantly interrupt each other. Is it rude ?…

The cultural differences between France and America is really interesting to explore. I learned one day that a “dating kiss” is really usual in America, and you can date-try a few guys, no problem. In France, a… hum… a “french kiss” means a lot more. You have an example here or here. Kiss, in France, means exclusive love. Voilà !

Oh, on last thing. In America, if you shake hands with someone, it seems it’s like a Contract written in Gold under some God. In France, when you shake hands after a conversation, it’s more a way to say goodbye and “We’re OK, we’re in peace”. That can be tricky at times !

We like freedom too much of obey some “rules” with the forever color. And if we have to, we… strike !

#kansas #usa #map #frenchtoolbox #wizard #oz

Cemetery

#cemetery #flower #jesus #photography #color #beautiful #pictures #photooftheday #photos #picture #pic #art #moment #exposure #photo #pics #snapshot #focus #composition #capture #picoftheday #instagood

A photo posted by 🙋 Jean-Pascal 🐨🐾 (@jprobocat) on Jan 25, 2016 at 12:39am PST

https://www.instagram.com/p/BA9KNyICWfM/

Local Gods

OK I’m french. My english is a frenglish, it’s rusty and wobbly, et voilà. Try me, though. I’ll do my best. I promise. If sometimes it’s too bad, just laugh at me or roll you eyes.

If we talk literature – et j’adore la littérature américaine – I think we all agree to say that we try to find the best writers… according to our tastes, opinions, style, and so on. Criterias.

Well, I love to read Faulkner and Jünger. I was amazed by Giono and Bouvier, and Chekhov makes me cry. Etc.

I think we live our tastes the same way. Painters. Architects. Photographs. Musicians,  whatever. I love Royksopp and Blonde Redhead because of their sound, and the way they compose music. I am fascinated by Puccini and Brahms. And I know exactly why.

I noticed that for sports, it’s different. In baseball, or football, people don’t like teams according to criterias, like style, energy or intelligence, or strategy.

People like the LOCAL team.

If you live in Boston, you support the Red Sox. I you live in Lille, like me, you support Le Losc, which is the local football team.

And I don’t understand why.

Lalo is a composer born in Lille. I should love his music, maybe, then ? Nope, sorry. I prefer Prokofiev.

I supppose that if I watched football I would watch closely the way they play, and THEN choose (criterias !) my best choice, the team I love, and I’ll buy tee-shirts, and flags to put here and there. Voilà !

Evidently, I suppose, in this case, that there’s another element. We like the local sports teams because… Efff… I don’t know. To make friends ? Nope. OK, I give up.

What about religion ?

There are many Gods to love, and many different specific religions. This is a bit complicated. But mainly, people act like in sports. They pray the local one. Why ? Wouldn’t it be more…

OK, I stop. Cheers !