My Friday entries (when Friday entries there have been) have been characteristically short, and I offer up a similar serving this Friday, but I find this interesting. It's rather my version of a 'blog quiz. (I always did prefer the essay questions.) As I sat in the deli a block from work this morning, drinking my bean juice and trying to finish up Jitterbug Perfume before the bell tolled, a curious question occurred to me: Is it more important to A) Know thyself; or B) Love thyself?
Please feel free to share your opinions. If you write at any length elsewhere on the subject, please give unto us a link.
8 comments:
You drink bean juice.
Hee hee!
BEAN JUICE!
See, it's even funny to say, much less drink.
Davey. This does not an answer equate.
But I appreciate your enthusiasm. Maybe I should regard that as a vote for love...?
I'm inclined to say "love thyself" if only because I suspect you secretly believe "know thyself" is the right answer, but in actuality, I question the initial premise. I often do, don't I. God I'm a pain in the ass. But I think there's a chicken/egg thing going on in my head, that I don't see the usefulness of either of them without the other. Loving thyself in ignorant, unquestioned bliss is sociopathology of George Bush proportions. Knowing thyself without love or at least charity is self-flagellation of, dare I say, on a scale of Jeff Wills. We have to be ruthless in understanding ourselves, but patient, kind and loving in addressing our flaws and shadows. So my answer to your question is "Yes".
I'll post more later, but let me say this.
"This does not an answer equate" makes you sound pompous.
Which is also a funny word to say.
Hah!
:-)
All right, you two. A) Davey, it's all in the delivery. I was imagining it in an Alex Guinness dialect, which makes it more pompous, but also as Ewan McGregor imitates him, which makes it less. B) Patrick, just to be clear, I'm not asking you to choose one or the other. I'm just asking which you consider more important. I complee agretely: Gots to have both.
Totally know thyself. True love can't come from a place of ignorance, and you're much more likely to be at piece with yourself and your actions if you know where they're coming from.
Also love is blind. And you know what makes you blind? Excessive masturbation. So that's two strikes against loving thyself too much.
Interesting, Nat. Don't prescribe to the axiom of ignorance being bliss, do you?
I know what you were saying, Jeff. I just don't think one is more important than the other. Nat makes a good point, but I still think they need to be balanced.
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