Comments for Burning Clove

Comment on Descriptions of Depression by Descriptions of Depression, Part Two « Burning Clove

Descriptions of Depression, Part Two « Burning Clove — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:09:39 +0000

[...] by burningclove on the November 8, 2009 Tags: Depression, Psychology, Quotations When I wrote this post I had not yet read what should have been its [...]

Comment on Tone by Joel

Joel — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:21:45 +0000

A budding, bloody Hemingway!

Comment on Fun with Urban Education by KQB

KQB — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:26:22 +0000

Augh…Can we put that on our resumes under skills and qualifications?

Comment on She wrote this about eating disorders. I would say the same about depression. by burningclove

burningclove — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:05:38 +0000

Yes, I totally agree, Nick. I think the psychological maneuver she’s talking about should be seen as the first in a series–the ambulance that keeps one alive long enough to reach the hospital, or some such metaphor. It’s a way to cheat death, not a way to live, and the former should enable the latter rather than preclude it.

I am past the stage she describes now, and so I don’t need her logic anymore, but I wouldn’t have gotten to this point (chronologically or psychologically) without it.

Comment on She wrote this about eating disorders. I would say the same about depression. by Nicholas

Nicholas — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:41:18 +0000

I think there’s so much *practical* wisdom here. At the same time, I do believe there’s more to it than that, since the little things-huge drama dichotomy obviously isn’t the only one. I think that for those who live on the small scale, or in the present moment, or however you want to put it, one can live simply OR simplistically, while even more importantly, on the epic scale, there are those who can live despairingly and tragically, or beautifully and hopefully. I don’t think life is essentially trivial and I’m not sure it’s advisable to think of it that way, even for therapeutic purposes.

The grand metaphysical systems we subscribe to aren’t unrelated to the way we live the quotidian dimensions of our existence. It may seem like everyone scrambles eggs the same, but they don’t — whether our little routines complete us or contribute to a slow and gradual dulling of the senses (to take just two profound possibilities) is contingent on our attitude towards existence itself, on how we process (intellectually, spiritually) the data of our experience.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about the old chronos-kairos distinction. There’s that attitude out there that as long as we are “good people” (defined as those who would know how to act righteously given a difficult situation), it doesn’t much matter how we live out the vast majority of our days, which are seemingly not concerned with moral dilemmas. But I don’t believe the vast majority of our days are disposable. Since they condition us, since they prepare us (or not) for the sudden irruption of crises and dramatic moments (which will come whether we deny that life is a Grand Epic or not), they are incredibly important and we need to take them seriously. Death, disaster, divorce, etc., take so many whose attitudes towards life are essentially complacent by surprise.

And meanwhile, even while our own trials are yet-to-come, there are still always those who are suffering elsewhere in the world, or even right next door to us….wherever they are beyond the purview of our experience…and it’s only seeing life as a Grand Epic, I think, that can galvanize us into looking beyond ourselves and living a life which is truly for the Other. Otherwise we get stymied by the here and now and close-by.

I know all this is obvious! I guess I just feel that if this author finds the Grand Epic inevitably dreary, then she is experiencing a real poverty. There is the possibility for the Grand Epic to be beautiful, too, and for it not to leave her gasping and grasping for merely invented reasons to live…

Comment on Filling out a Harvard alumni survey by Nicholas

Nicholas — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:23:07 +0000

:-O
Unbelievable…!!!

Comment on Bigger OOPS? by Nicholas

Nicholas — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:22:32 +0000

I’m really sorry that had to happen….but I think that you did what was right. Certainly you did what you thought was right, and that’s all anyone can ask. I’ve come into contact, however tangentially, with CPS on my job this year, and it’s very, very difficult to know how to characterize them (impersonal bureaucracy separating families which given their backgrounds have precious little choice but to be dysfunctional, or unique force of responsibility looking after the interests of the defenseless) or what to do in situations like that. I think that in some situations, there is no right or wrong action…only right or wrong motivations. And I’m sure you had the right ones.

And maybe, with time, this kid will be willing to open up to you again, after all…especially if it sinks in someday that you do care about his safety.

Comment on Filling out a Harvard alumni survey by Joel

Joel — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:20:31 +0000

Yikes. ‘Twould be interesting to see the percentile breakdowns.

Comment on Ambush by Joel

Joel — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:14:11 +0000

I don’t know. My impression is that irrationality is what all humans have in common, and reason is how they manufacture enough differences to separate everyone from everyone else, turning every individual into a mere representation of an abstract type.

Comment on Parable by burningclove

burningclove — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:27:00 +0000

Isn’t it?

I read a volume of Kierkegaard’s parables a few years ago and noted down my favorites. I think it was an editor, not the author, who selected passages from SK’s writings and labeled them as parables and published them in a volume, but I don’t remember for sure. I found it in a library somewhere, so I don’t have it anymore.