Death and Life by Gustav Klimt

Lift up your heads
nestle in the comfort of each others
not for very long now
slip out from under your covers

After your days, to wither and fray
while cold fevered fingers beckon away
the rosy peak of spring ripens on a breeze
your bodies buckle in my arms like old willow trees

You moan you weep in despair
about the magnitude of your last great affair
I grasp as if to console
the fear and the sorrow brooding in your soul

Lift up your heads

nestle in the comfort of each others

not for very long now

slip out from under your covers

When I come for the small the loved and the old 

All sin and greatness dissipates

none are bold

I Shall Imagine Beauty

i shall imagine life
by e e cummings


i shall imagine life
is not worth dying,if
(and when)roses complain
their beauties are in vain

but though mankind persuades
itself that every weed's
a rose,roses(you feel
certain)will only smile


When I read this title in our old faded e e cummings collected works book, I thought great, another dull, saturated poem about life and death. It turned out, that most of the poem is about the ever changing conflicts and opinions of beauty. The poem deals mainly with mankind's perception of beauty. Each individual is entitled to their own opinion of creatures and things. But they are only judged to be beautiful if the public eye considers them beautiful. 


In the very opinionated first two lines he seems to be saying that he will only say that life is only worth dying when the real beauties say that their beauty is meaningless, or 'in vain'. Because life's not worth dying, life is worth living, and the struggles and disappointments are all part of one brilliant experience. The idea that life isn't worth dying makes sense to me but only because of the way we treat and accept the concept of death. Life is just too meaningful to make such a fuss about.

In the next two stanzas e e cummings refers to roses as a personification of all the beauties of the world and describes them as scared that once they have wilted, that they won't be beautiful. But he almost assures us and the beauties that if you're are truly a beauty that we will know in our heart of hearts and that the real beauties will only smile. Since, after all, that's the beautiful thing to do. If our minds are convinced that all weeds are roses then let them. because physical beauty can die but not the beauty of the clear cut soul.


Sadly, I don't see much in the world to support this optimism. The world has nearly succeeded in persuading us that every weed is a rose. So the "real" beauties will die in silent. How long before they and we proclaim that beauty is in vain? To not be afraid for when they are old and dying and or hopefully sometime before they will realize that we are beautiful and we are not. That beauty should hold sway over no one and people need to all accept their themselves, their lives, their fates and other. All in a perfect world.

A Life on facebook

A wonderful video about our social need for the Internet,wonderfully filmed and directed by Maxim Lumiere. PG-13

A Sense of Normalcy and Perfecting Our Image

What if we didn't have such big egos, could we stop killing, end world hunger or find social acceptance? Maybe not yet but we certainly can start to relax a little bit.

In Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz we are lead into the long novel by our main character, Jasper, and for about the next 600 or so pages we are submerged in his incredibly serious and skeptical yet hilariously witty and satiric voice. He recounts his distorted childhood raised by his cynical and hopelessly rambling father. The book is so raw and captivating that you have look up from the page and take some deep breaths and remind yourself to laugh and that there is light in the world still, even though Jasper's father's twisted philosophies and life lessons reveal a pitiful and melancholy soul who has just plainly given up.

Especially as teenagers we take ourselves so seriously. We are all looking for something and if it's not "fun times" drugs and rock 'n roll. Then it's to perfect our ever changing image of masculinity, beauty, tough-ness, depth, brains or just being cool. As humans we are always seeking someone else's approval, where as the muddled philosophy lessons instilled by Jasper's father strongly advise against agreeing with anyone or following anything at all, we are all so desperately and pitifully concerned with ourselves, it makes me sick but as much as I or anyone else tries to deny it, we feel the painful sting of inadequacy sometimes whether it's an extra ten pounds of a failed job interview.

Only fifteen pages into my novel of the week and already I am presented with an interesting idea unfolding in the book. People take their actions, personas and percive the world so seriously that if they stop to laugh at the world or "smell the roses" as it were we might just find a bit of peace. We can stop killing over ipods and shoes, people will have the courage to accept themselves and other people's problems and identities. We will be unstoppable there will still be mistakes and stupid choices with stupid consequences but there will be a whole lot less of them.

So even though Jasper's lessons and father have torched his social skills and sense of normalcy (but hey who ever feels normal anyway) the premise [to not follow anyone else, make your own choices and don't stoop to other people levels or their ideas]  may not be such bad ideas after all