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Forget EVERYTHING you know

THIS is the story

Upon the axis of the universe dwells The Fool, bridging the infinite expanses of light above with the abysmal depths of darkness below. The Fool is your essential self, the essence of your being, the constant point from which every incarnation you have experienced, or will ever experience, emanates and returns.

The Fool is the axis of the Cube of Space. Around this central pillar of bright yellow light revolve the six directions of space, whose edges touch the stars of the zodiac, symbolizing the many stages of attainment that all physical incarnations will eventually experience

—David Allen Hulse, New Dimensions for the Cube of Space

primulaceas

Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

#paul dano

sulkyselkie-deactivated20220813

apricops

“If you repay evil with kindness, then how will you repay kindness?” hits me so hard and it’s a paraphrased line from the Analects of Confucius

apricops

14.34 Someone said, “To employ virtue to repay resentment, how would that be?”

The Master said, “What, then, would you employ to repay virtue? Employ straightforwardness to repay resentment; employ virtue to repay virtue.”

('Virtue' here is 'de' (德), but (according to several different translations) it's being used in an archaic sense of 'kindness' or 'good behavior.' This is one of those passages where if you read three different translations you'll find five different versions.)

To me, this is -- like many parts of the Analects -- Confucius going "okay, now think it through a few more steps."

If people are rude to you, or dislike you, you should be kind to them. You should also, presumably, be kind to people who are kind to you. You're announcing to the world, "treat me however you want, I'll react the same either way! If you want a favor from me you can either give me a gift or spit on my face!" But remember, the impact of your behavior goes far beyond your own self. Even if repaying resentment with virtue/kindness makes you feel good, it also puts a "kick me" sign on your back. How many abusive friendships, abusive marriages, abusive jobs were built on the back of "repaying resentment with virtue"?

Because when thinking about hypotheticals like this, it's tempting and easy to imagine some scenario happening between two strangers in a void, e.g. "if some guy was just like "you suck" then how would you respond." But We Live In A Society. How should you respond to your boss's resentment? Your parent's resentment?

So step one is to grow a spine and say "fuck that." Step two is to reject the kindness-cruelness dichotomy. Human interaction is far too complex to reduce to such a simple binary. We add in a third option: straightforwardness. Not taking the bait. If your boss is rude but you can't afford to leave the job, or you're stuck living with an abusive parent, you give them just enough politeness to survive and don't spare one more iota for them.

kata4a

in that case, I have my answer:

"If you repay evil with kindness, then how will you repay kindness?"

"With affection ~"

anditslove

“I did crave attention, but I refused to humiliate myself by asking for it.”

— Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation

funeral

Spirit glass slides by Frederick Hudson (detail), 1870

Having commenced in 1872, Hudson is credited with being the first spirit photographer in Britain and worked with the medium Georgiana Houghton. He was exposed as a fraud on several occasions using double exposures and other tricks to create his photos. Often the sitter is framed in such a way to allow room for the ‘ghost’ to fit into the photo.