WHOSE WORLD IS IT?
OURS!
MINE!
OH, YEH?!
Whose world is it?
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Tag Archives: philosophy
Build wealth and happiness!
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
MORNING ON THE HOLLYWOOD BROADWALK
“Be happy for this moment…”
Who created symmetry (2)?
Not long ago I published the post WHO CREATED SYMMETRY?
I expressed there several original thoughts about symmetry.
One of them: “As a rule beauty is not symmetrical.”
Another: “… symmetry … shows limits of human imagination.”
Please read more in this old post and then take a look at the picture below.
What’s your opinion?
We live many lives
One week after I started this blog I published a post “We live many lives”. Today I decided to copy it here because it is a central post to my understanding of life and pursuit of happiness.
I want to stress that life always requires to make risky choices. When you decide to marry or not to marry it is one of the riskiest choices in your life.
I also want to stress one sentence in the post below:
“a human being is born for happiness but happiness is notquaranteed, it must be achieved!”*
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*
- ” Man is born to be happy as a bird is born to fly”.
V. Korolenko
First of all, what is life?
There are different definitions of it.
Here are some of them:
-sequences of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual
– spiritual existence transcending physical death
– the period from birth to death
– a specific phase of earthly existence.
It’s easy to see that they have different meaning and some of
them are contradictory.
If life is “the period from birth to death” how can it also be “spiritual existence transcending physical death”?
If life is “a specific phase of earthly existence” it definitely means
that all of us live many lives.
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My memory keeps happy days of childhood in Odessa (Ukraine),
a beautiful port city.
June 22 was my mother’s birthday and has always been a very
joyful day for my family.
However, on June 22 1941 Germany attacked the USSR and
a terrible war started. My happy first life ended that day.
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I also remember my life in Tashkent (capital of Uzbekistan), It was
so different from my first life. New city, new people, new language.
My father was in the army, my mother worked in the hospital in
another city and I lived with my grandparents in a tiny room with a clay
floor. There was too little food, we were lacking many necessities
but my grandparents loved me very much and l loved going to school.
We had wonderful teachers, real professionals who loved their
students..
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Then there was a life in Moscow where I graduated from college, met my
wonderful wife and we started our family.
That life was very difficult too.
We lived in the totalitarian country where people could disappear at any
moment. My wife did not know her father. He was arrested and
executed a month before she was born. 28 years later my mother-in-law
received an official letter that he was innocent.
Three of us lived in a small apartment with three other families.
There was only a big sofa in our room, so my mother-in-law
had to go to sleep to her sister who lived nearby..
My wife was a designer and I worked on my dissertation at that
time and our love, our interesting work, love of our relatives and
friends made us happy.
A year after our marriage our son was born.
He had to sleep in the crib on the wide windowsill as there was no
other place for him in our room.
Our dream was also to have a girl. But first we needed a better
place for our family,
So we worked very hard for years. Besides working in research I
wrote books. We saved money and realized our dream by buying a nice
two bedroom apartment. And we were happy to live there with our
two children.(a boy and a girl).
Yes, a human being is born for happiness but happiness is not
quaranteed, it must be achieved!.
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Every person must grow mentally and spiritually. And with the growth new
goals come.
We were happy to live in our new apartment. Both of us were successful in
our careers. We lived in the center of Moscow and had many friends,
But gradually we came to understanding that it was our duty to leave the
USSR, to bring our children into the free world and to experience freedom
of a democratic society.
We made a very risky choice to apply for a permission to emigrate.
Nobody knew if the permission would be granted. We had to resign from
our jobs and to keep our children at home.
We were lucky to get a permission to emigrate after waiting for
five months. In February of 1975 we left the Soviet Union and then
a new cycle of lives in USA started.
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Who created symmetry?
Before submitting entries to this challenge I searched for definition of the word “symmetry”.
Here is one that I like (from The Free Dictionary): “The correspondence of the form and arrangement of elements or parts on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane or about a center or an axis.”
Then I thought: “Where do we meet symmetry?” Is symmetry natural? Is it created by people?”
It looks to me that nature has only a few symmetrical things on this planet. As a rule beauty is not symmetrical. The rule of thirds in photography confirms it.
I think that symmetry (even as beautiful as some of my digital paintings) actually shows limits of human imagination.
Now it’s time to show my entries in this challenge.
“I will not be young again…”?
Below is one of my favorite poems by Sergei Yesenin. He wrote it when he was 25 years old.
I am 80 years old now and I feel that I am still young. My views changed drastically since I read this poem first time and now I doubt that “I will not be young again”.
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I do not regret, and I do not shed tears,
All, like haze off apple-trees, must pass.
Turning gold, I’m fading, it appears,
I will not be young again, alas.
*
Having got to know the touch of coolness
I will not feel, as before, so good.
And the land of birch trees, – oh my goodness!-
Cannot make me wander barefoot.
*
Vagrant’s spirit! You do not so often
Stir the fire of my lips these days.
Oh my freshness, that begins to soften!
Oh my lost emotions, vehement gaze!
*
Presently I do not feel a yearning,
Oh, my life! Have I been sleeping fast?
Well, it feels like early in the morning
On a rosy horse I’ve galloped past.
*
We are all to perish, hoping for some favour,
Golden leaves flow down turning grey.
May you be redeemed and blessed for ever,
You who came to bloom and pass away…
Sergei Yesenin
*
My painting #13
Quotes and poems of Omar Khayyam
Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.
When I want to understand what is happening today or try to decide what will happen tomorrow, I look back.
As far as you can avoid it, do not give grief to anyone. Never inflict your rage on another. If you hope for eternal rest, feel the pain yourself; but don’t hurt others.
*
To wisely live your life, you don’t need to know much
Just remember two main rules for the beginning:
You better starve, than eat whatever
And better be alone, than with whoever.
*
How sad, a heart that
does not know how to love, that
does not know what it is to be drunk with love.
If you are not in love, how can you enjoy
the blinding light of the sun,
the soft light of the moon?
*
Realise this: one day your soul
will depart from your body and you will
be drawn behind the curtain that floats between us
and the unknown. While you wait for that moment, be happy,
because you don’t know where you came from and
you don’t know where you will be going.
“Be happy for this moment!” photo by JF
Quotes of George Bernard Shaw (1).
I believe that quotes of George Bernard Shaw must be understood and remembered by everyone. That’s why I reblog this old post.
I know that bloggers are élite.
It is obvious that all of you know that George Bernard Shaw was a great man.
But it is quite possible that you know only about one or two of his life’s activities and achievements.
So I recommend you to read an article about George Bernard Shaw HERE.
I love many of his famous quotes. Below are several of them that are as valid today as they were valid during his life.
He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called…
View original post 76 more words
Philosophy of beauty
I am sorry!
With learning photography, painting and writing I neglected to share with you many interesting things found and saved in a special draft called “Reserve”.
On the other hand, it might be interesting only for me.
Let’s try it today.
I’ll give you below a link to an article that I liked very much.
Please click on the link, read the article and let me know your opinion.
I’d like to know if I should share with you some other items saved in “Reserve”.
PHILOSOPHER by JF
About faith and God
I know there are many people who don’t believe in God. They call themselves atheists and other names.
During 40 years of my life in the Soviet Union I knew that “religion is the opium for the people”, that there is no God, that no intelligent person can believe in God.
However, even at that time I wondered why majority of physicists and astronomers believed in God. Those people were discovering new stars, laws of universe, laws of matter. How could they believe in God?
During 40 years of my life in America I studied philosophy, history and essence of different religions. I learned much more about life, about human psychology, about sufferings and faith.
Today I chose the quote below:
So, what do you think about it?
I know, I know!
After I published yesterday the short post “Do you believe in evolution? Our relative?” one of my followers (M-R) asked me to clarify my beliefs. I do it by reblogging this post.
Quote about poverty and wealth.
“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.
In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
Several quotes about treaties.
Charles De Gaulle – “Treaties are like roses and young girls — they last while they last.”
Benjamin Franklin – “Mad kings and mad bulls are not to be held by treaties and packthread.”
I am sure you know what I have in mind. Any comments?
Quotes of George Bernard Shaw (1).
I know that bloggers are élite.
It is obvious that all of you know that George Bernard Shaw was a great man.
But it is quite possible that you know only about one or two of his life’s activities and achievements.
So I recommend you to read an article about George Bernard Shaw HERE.
I love many of his famous quotes. Below are several of them that are as valid today as they were valid during his life.
He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.
If any of you disagree with any of these quotes I will be very glad to see your comments and to reply to them.
Thomas Sowell and his quotes.
I just returned home from a nice party and found an email with Thomas Sowell’s quotes. I read all quotes and then went to Google to find out who was Thomas Sowell.
Here is what I found: THOMAS SOWELL
Then I went back to the email and copied several quotes.
You can see them below and make your own conclusions.
“Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.”
“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
“One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.”
“I have never understood why it is “greed” to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”
“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”*“Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.”
*
First steps to happiness.
Everyone wants to be happy. How to do it? In this post I share my thoughts about steps to happiness and give several quotes of famous people.
“Man is born for happiness as a bird is born to fly”.
It is a quote from an essay of Vladimir Korolenko. He was a Russian short story writer, journalist, human rights activist and humanitarian.
“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt.
I hope that everyone knows who she was.
Now, if you want happiness and a good life what do you need to do?
You need to learn and to learn and to learn. You need to learn what is good and what is bad. You need to learn about your family, about your community, about your country, about the world.
You must learn what is given in schools, you must learn some occupation, you must prepare yourself for work and then to start working. I don’t believe…
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Life is fair and beautiful!
Long ago I came to two conclusions: 1. Life is wonderful! 2. You have to pay for happiness. The very best is not given for nothing!
Some years ago I thought that it was not fair that I worked very hard for many years but I have no property.
I never had a bird like below or a horse like below. I never had a castle like below either.
Then I reminded myself that I have a wonderful family, that God gave me an opportunity to live a new life in the USA, freedom to think and choose, ability to learn, appreciate and travel.
I have no property but we visited more than 50 countries and enjoyed beauty of many places including the magical Hawaiian island Maui (see the last photo below).
It is clear that we can easily do without a macaw or a gorgeous horse or a beautiful castle.
There are many pleasures in life each day. A smile, a kiss, a good word, a flower, a cup of coffee, a good book. We just need to…
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Know yourself and be happy!
It is time to reblog this old post. I want to add a quote I found today: “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
Maria Robinson
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 