Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul--
And sings the tune without words
And never stops--at all.
--Emily Dickinson
Listened to an entire 90 minutes of a comedian named Jim Jeffries, an Australian comedian. I was pedaling my exercise bicycle or I would have stopped. He had some funny bits, but interspersed with really revolting unfunny stuff. But, at the very end, he started talking about his own experience with depression and he noted that as a fifty year old the dark Depression of his 20's and 30's lifted.
And it dawned on him why: In his 20's and 30's he still had hope.
At 50 it was just enough to wake up alive.
Oh, I'm still here. A new day. Wonderful.
There is a bit in "Band of Brothers" when Captain Spiers, a relentless officer, listens to a soldier confess he had hidden in a ditch the night of D-Day and didn't get out to fight until the next morning, because he was too terrified. Spiers, who has run directly into enemy positions, is not disdainful; he is analytical. He asks the soldier if he knows why he stayed in that ditch and answers his own question, "Because you still had hope."
Spiers goes on to to explain, "You have to understand the very simple truth: We are all already dead. None of us will get out of this alive. Until you understand that, you'll try to keep on living."
Mephistopheles tells Dr. Faustus, "The greatest Hell is remembering happier times."
Le sale espoir, "Dirty hope," is a concept well known to readers of Sartre.
In our youth, the possibility for great things happening to us makes us compare our humdrum lives to the glorious possibilities we fail to achieve. We are sad because we are seeing happier times elude us.
By the time we get to the downhill slide, we are just happy to be on the hill at all.
Maybe this is why so many people find joy in painting as they get older--Churchill, Eisenhower, George W--they all found something in color and paint. It didn't have to be VanGogh quality. They knew it didn't have to be. They were no longer competing.
That perches in the soul--
And sings the tune without words
And never stops--at all.
--Emily Dickinson
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| The Body Electric --Local Hampton artist, Lilly Dylan |
Listened to an entire 90 minutes of a comedian named Jim Jeffries, an Australian comedian. I was pedaling my exercise bicycle or I would have stopped. He had some funny bits, but interspersed with really revolting unfunny stuff. But, at the very end, he started talking about his own experience with depression and he noted that as a fifty year old the dark Depression of his 20's and 30's lifted.
And it dawned on him why: In his 20's and 30's he still had hope.
At 50 it was just enough to wake up alive.
Oh, I'm still here. A new day. Wonderful.
There is a bit in "Band of Brothers" when Captain Spiers, a relentless officer, listens to a soldier confess he had hidden in a ditch the night of D-Day and didn't get out to fight until the next morning, because he was too terrified. Spiers, who has run directly into enemy positions, is not disdainful; he is analytical. He asks the soldier if he knows why he stayed in that ditch and answers his own question, "Because you still had hope."
Spiers goes on to to explain, "You have to understand the very simple truth: We are all already dead. None of us will get out of this alive. Until you understand that, you'll try to keep on living."
Mephistopheles tells Dr. Faustus, "The greatest Hell is remembering happier times."
Le sale espoir, "Dirty hope," is a concept well known to readers of Sartre.
In our youth, the possibility for great things happening to us makes us compare our humdrum lives to the glorious possibilities we fail to achieve. We are sad because we are seeing happier times elude us.
By the time we get to the downhill slide, we are just happy to be on the hill at all.
Maybe this is why so many people find joy in painting as they get older--Churchill, Eisenhower, George W--they all found something in color and paint. It didn't have to be VanGogh quality. They knew it didn't have to be. They were no longer competing.
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| Under Rte 1 Bridge to North Hampton |
Phantom,
ReplyDeleteYou're right-age does have it's unique and distinct advantages. One can engage in an activity like painting without worrying about whether it will be a masterpiece, there's just the simple enjoyment of creating. Period. No pressure. As I wrote in my response to your blog "Ten Summers" last night, knowing we won't be going on forever does hopefully motivate one to spend the time that's left with people and pursuits that bring us pleasure. Discovering what it is that provides happiness is a necessary and worthwhile endeavor and not, as some might think, frivolous or selfish...
Maud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm all for frivolous and selfish.
But that's just me.