Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
–– Voltaire
I don’t think life is really a shipwreck, I think right now the world is more like the Titanic. There are warning signs, but it hasn’t hit the iceberg just yet. So what do we do? For me it’s not wasting the precious time I have left. Splash more paint with festive abandon!
Do you think I’m too pessimistic?
April 23, 2014
It’s very like the Titanic. The captain is going at full speed despite all the iceberg warnings, and the passengers are partying as if everything’s just fine. But time is running out….
Except in our case there is no captain.
I agree Nick
You are not a pessimist. You are a person who wants to live in the present and have fun. I suppose that the nearest word to describe that person would be sybarite! A good way to live indeed. I am one too.
Sounds good to me!
I have to somewhat agree with you Jean that life for most of us, at least here in the United States, is not a shipwreck. Or perhaps better stated, life doesn’t at least start out that way. In some other countries, particularly of the third-world type, for many I suspect it is a shipwreck right from the git-go. But again, that from one’s prospective who has been blessed to have been born in this country.
Now on the other hand, as far as the world goes I do think it is already a shipwreck. An old shipwreck pecariously clinging to some piece of rock in the middle of the ocean being battered by waves and wind waiting for the final crushing wave that will take it to the depths. 😕
And now on a more cheerful note…. 🙂
It’s not the first crisis mankind has faced — think of the ice ages. We’ve been lucky to live in such relatively great times. I, for one, count my blessings!
i too, tend to be pessimistic.
but love the joseph campbell quote of; “go joyfully, amid the sorrows of the world.”
tessa~
I’m a cheerful pessimist, so thanks for the Joseph Campbell quote. 🙂
sybarites unite!
as long as i take very long long long sabbaticals from the news…. local and national…
i stay blithely happy about it all. and my blood pressure stays lower.
not the most mature approach perhaps… but it’s what works for me.
paint away dear monk!!!
Maturity is overrated!. Yay, us!
Nope.
One of the great lyrics of all time I think is from Eno’s Babies on Fire, “If you’d be my flotsam, I could be hotter than I used to” – captures perfectly the desperate clinging of being in love I think.
I just Googled the piece and am listening to it. I must say, I like long-term love better than “being in love.”
I agree with your attitude. I don’t think you’re a pessimist. Rather you’re a “seize the day” kind of person!
Yes, that fits a lot better than the term sybarite. It’s more engaged, and grateful.
Shipwreck – depends on the day, the year, the hour, the season and the weather…but mostly I am floating along quite well 🙂 thanks
That’s great!