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4th Nov 07 by Gabriel30
The
way I want to live
Human history is not a history of increasing cleverness or
increasing acuity of vision. It is just that we change our views. It is
astonishing how many people, in this day and age, are still
incredibly negative and cannot or will not change their views on
certain matters.
I think that no one will deny that we, Homo sapiens, are not always guided by reason. I tend to agree with
Schopanoer, the German writer and philosopher who argues that
human behaviour is governed not by the intellect but by the irrational
impulses of the human will – which includes ambition, hate and sexual
desires.
A central concern in my thought is that man is a being unique on
this earth; he is endowed with an essential worth that exists
nowhere else in the known world. Man is a being who may easily be
degraded, but to degrade him is wrong. If he is debased,
man is forced either to succumb or to defend himself and fight
for his own human dignity.
In some of his Songs, Gustav Mahler says
Man languishes in great need
Man languishes in great pain
I agree, there are indeed great needs and great pain for us human beings on this earth; but I cannot help
thinking that there is one kind of pain that we bring on
ourselves and as long as there are
people who cannot or will not change their views on certain
matters, there will always be murders and totally unnecessary
degradation of certain people and, in consequence,
rebelliousness and retaliation
with disastrous results, which is horrible,despicable and totally
unacceptable. This is not a way to live! As it is, I feel bitterly,
bitterly disturbed and ill at ease.
I am referring to the unreasonable question of intolerance on the
part of white
people against black people and black people against white
people. To me, a perfectly ordinary person, I cannot see any sense
in this kind of attitude. Even if one does not subscribe to any
particular canon or credo in any religious faith, one cannot help –
if any one cares to reflect - to realize that people with
different coloured skin have always existed and will always exist just
like there are different kinds of trees and flowers. To fell down
a tree or pluck out a flower just because we do not like them is
totally senseless because they do exist in abundance and however
much we try we will never be able to destroy every single tree or flower
we do not like. People, like trees and flowers, are part of nature and
have always existed and will always exist. To kill one man or to
bully and harass him until he commits suicide just because he is White
or Asian or Black – how does this resolve one\'s problem? Furthermore,
I simply
cannot see how, because someone is White, Asian or Black, affect me
in any way and that I have to take those drastic actions
against them.
The fact of the matter is that our profession on this earth is to
die and that
is irrespective of whether one is White, Asian or Black. It is this
mortal life and nothing else that we should consider and reflect
upon.
We perfectly ordinary people cannot grasp what is going on in the
mind nof some
people who, though possess with an immensity of a complexity
of a brain, with which they can achieve almost anything they want,
and yet say absolute barbaric inhumanities. I prefer to say that
this is outside
my range of outstanding.
One cannot listen to Gustav Mahler\'s music without confronting the question of music as an expression of
life. The \"Adagietto\" in his 5th Symphony is a case in point.
And there are so many examples of
this in his music. Mahler\'s music takes one beyond what one is able
to bear, because it is the relief and because it is the freedom.
Music, like Mahler and Bach\' music, help us to touch something that
is eternal
and greater than ourselves.
A few years ago, I witnessed something on television that brought
tears to my eyes and it still does whenever I watched this
particular
programme on my video. It was at a performance of the Vienna
\"New Years Day\" concert and while the orchestra was playing
a waltz – \"Roses from the South\", incidentally, one of my
favourites – something happened that I have never seen before,
something that touched me very, very deeply: The Vienna Choir boys distributed
flowers to members of the audience – European, Chinese, Black people,
any one. I thought, that is what I want to see, all the time, all over
the world, no crime of any sort, just pure love for every human being.
This is the way
I want to live!
France Chorley
Would you care to be my pen pal? If so, please nice and write to me
on my email address, which is: france.chorley@gmail.com
But of course, you don’t have to my pen pal or friend. I am wise and intelligent enough to realize
that we cannot like everyone in this world and not everyone can like us.
And if we cannot be friends, that is ok; we don’t have to write to
each other or talk to each other, but we don’t have to hate each other.
If everyone would think in this very simple but logical way, I
think we would have less wars and killings in our world.
Would you care to be my pen Pal?
If so, please be nice and write to me on my email address, which
is:
Gabrielfc@inbox.com
Thank you, with all my love, kind thoughts and my deepest respect.
France Chorley My Email address is: Gabrielfc@inbox.com
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