something that sums you up?

[bennie2]

ever found something, a quote, image, sound, thought... that sums up your whole existence, ethos, philosophy, sensibilities?

I found this:

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
Anton Chekhov

And... that pretty much sums up my view of beauty.

It reminds me of a photo I took once:

<img src='http://www.fotothing.com/photos/99a/99a ... 5b71f1.jpg'>

my friend took a photo of the sunset, he * took the photo facing the sunset, I took* the photo of the sun reflected on a graffit stained building by the riverside. that has always been my way of viewing beauty. in my head beauty CAN'T be obvious.

*edited part.

[judih]

everyday i seem to find another quote that says it for me,
but about looking straight at beauty -
i used to have to hide my child's face to stop the incredible overstimulation of such beauty. Like 'i can't look, i can't look' just to make looking all that more miraculous.

Sight is so amazing it has to be one of our most precious human gifts.

[bohonato]

Dreyfus once wrote that on
Devil's Island he would see the
most glorious birds. Many
years later in Brittany he
realized they had only been sea
gulls.

To me they will always be the most glorious birds.
- Dame Marjorie Chardin

If you're out there you're vulnerable.
People prefer to disappear in life,
to repress their personality.
That's not living,
it's dying.
I see them all over the place,
the walking dead.
- Grace Jones

The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen.
We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses.
- Robert Ardrey

The first is probably my favourite quote from Harold and Maude (which is saying something), and the last two have been in my mind a lot lately. I could probably go on forever with something like this, but I think these three roughly sum it up.

[mtmynd]

cool image, bennie.

interesting question...

today i don't have anything "that sums up (my) whole existence, ethos, philosophy, sensibilities." at least I don't remember anything (today) that would fit. i'm in a fog.

can you see me looking at this?

[Lightning Rod]

I had to think on this one for a few days, bennie

it's almost a question like, "what would your epitaph say?"

but I asked myself, "what sums you up?"

is it my work? Is it my music? Is it my writing?

No

I'm summed up by the people who have tolerated me in their lives. I'm summed up by my friends and associations, the people that I have touched and who have touched me. I am summed up by what they mean to me and what I have meant to them.

That about sums it up.

[Arcadia]

oh... math!!!! algebraic sum?

No idea... I felt one week ago only like a hurting feet... now I feel mostly like "a feet that is walking". I must be passing through partial-fragmentary-times...
I like this line of Fito Páez´s "Three needles" song as a quotation (don´t ask me now what it means really) : "la luna nunca es la misma", "the moon is never the same".

[sooZen]

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best~" and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called...

Winnie the Pooh

[bennie2]

"the moment before you eat the honey"

that's the best, and most zen, answer so far

We've put this mountain trek off for a few weeks now but it's looking like it'll be sunday! Can't wait. I'm premeditating the beaty now. I'm on the cusp of a taste and yes, maybe the cusp is better than the taste. the cusp offers perfection while the taste only offers reality.

ha.

Here's hoping I don't fall off. My friend and I are taking a hipflask (to ward off the cold!) of single malt... check the scottish news on monday. if three go missing... hope you hear from me on monday night.

[mousey1]

As always it's in the music I think.

Someone else saying it so better for me.

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The Sound Of, by Jann Arden


and yes, imperfect sound quality...how perfect.

[YABYUM]

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars... "