so my classes this semester are fascinating. i really do love them. especially my postcolonial class and my class on buddhism. prepare for all of the following posts to be my favorite exerpts from readings.
like this one:
(salman rushdie)
"...human beings do not perceive things whole; we are not gods but wounded creatures, cracked lenses, capable of only fractured perceptions. Partial beings, in all the senses of that phrase. Meaning is a shaky edifice we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old films, small victories, people hated, people loved; perhaps it is because of our sense of what is the case is constructed from such inadequate materials that we defend it so fiercely, even to the death."
lately i've been feeling a bit more partial, depending on that chance as if it weren't chance, but something to be counted on, cursing my fractured perceptions, and praying for the whole. in my buddhism class, we talk about change a lot. nothing ever stays. the "shaky edifice" of meaning is our downfall -- our attachment to the things we cannot keep forever is what makes us so unhappy. i can see what sorts of things i can separate from, but it is those little things that make meaning that i never want to lose, precisely because they do change. i want to revel in my senses and in loving people -- lovely, changing, loose, revolving, evolving, silly people. i want these things while i can have them -- and i'm so grateful for the hope that i don't ever have to lose them.
3 comments:
If only we could see the whole picture I think there would be a lot more understanding and symphathy in the world. But, like the quote said, not being able to see the whole picture is what makes us human. I belive it is that way to teach us tolerance and patience. May we always seek to understand before we cast judgments.
That first quote reminds me of the study of hermeneutics...have you come across that in your lit classes?
ooh I love the postcolonial class too! nice pick of quotes.
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