Greatness simply conquers what is holding it back. Suffering, loneliness, poor health, poor finances, whatever it may be greatness overcomes it. That is what makes greatness great.
Empathy is certainly a better word, yes.
Emotions are complex because people are complex. They want what they cannot or should not have, they refuse to receive what they should, and they are capable of denying to understand things even in themselves. Emotions are mixed with joy and pain, strength and weakness, a desire to touch the stars and the apathy to not take the best course to do so. Most strong emotions are at missing something sorely or receiving something sorely missed. If art grants us one thing, it is the creation and expression of the entire emotional sphere.
Is not this whole conversation philosophical in nature? We are speaking of the values and reality, the theories and thoughts, the underlying reasoning concepts of art. Philosophy is how you conduct you life, and how you conduct your life is how you value what comprises life.
A good question indeed, I would have to think on it… True true, I just think the often enought resulting lonelyness is very sad. And I wonder if the aloneness is necessary. I don't believe anyone's destined to be alone. That is very insighful and true. I'm glad you agree, I avoid pity when I can. It seems pity never helps anything, especially when you want to draw near someone. You cannot be equally close with someone if you have pity because pity means you think of yourself as better in some way. True, art is a great gift. On further thinking I do not think it can be deserved. It can only be held in gratitude and wonder. Like a gift. I suppose yes, I just fear I may not be up to snuff in handling it the fitting way. XD I like that last line, may I quote you on it?
Loneliness is a common disease in humanity, but how much of a disease is it? How can one be lonely in a family, in a crowded room, in a school or neighborhood with a hundred people around them? I know it is not good for man to be alone, but what is loneliness? A longing for a voice, a hand. To be at the end of a day and have so much to say and no one to say it too. It's a sickness that too often people use other people as a simple antidote to their loneliness, rather than fix a root cause. It is said that loneliness is a sign you are desperate need of yourself. That if you cannot stand being alone, you are missing something in yourself, and not another person. Why are people lonely? How can people have the capacity for it? Too often the lonely have nothing to do, or they do not wish to do what they should. Tell me of a lonely person who is not also bored. To read and walk, sing and play music. Much of what loneliness is a basic lack of humanity's richness and benefits and creations. What color can rise if it is not separate? What noise of music or word in poetry can be heard if it is not separate? Too often, to become separate is to become lonely, not for people left behind in the process of growth (such as middle-school friends or such), but for people that one will never meet. It's loneliness between the pages, under the clouds, inside the notes. Most often, people are lonely because they never made friends with themselves. I can't help but feel my take on loneliness is dis-jointed and poor. It is late at night and I have been a very solitary person for a long time. Loneliness has lost its flavor and vibrant misunderstandings. Perhaps you can help fill in the gaps, give your take on loneliness, and elaborate on what you said about destiny. I know that loneliness is not destiny just as suffering is not. I almost feel like deleting the whole previous paragraph and starting over, but I know not where to start.
Pity is too akin to feeling sickness at another's sickness. A feeling of poverty of spirit at another's poverty. I suppose that pity cleans no one's mess, but might spread it more evenly between two or more.
I've always felt that art was a like a gift, but never felt like it needed to be deserved. I never felt like I had to earn the greatness in some music, but that it was a call to the greatness in myself. That the gift of sunshine was made to warm the whole world, and it falls on the evil as well as the good. A gift is a poor word for it, and I feel that my vocabulary is lacking right now for the right word. It is closer to the artist saying, "open you eyes and I will show you, open your ears and I will tell you." A gift can be received only once, but art can be enjoyed again and again. An artist "shares" and does not quite gift a thing, because it is still theirs. All the emotion, the care, the time and work are still in it like the life-blood of the heart, and only the artist himself/herself truly knows the breadth and depth of it. It is less a gift and more an offering for two,the artist and the audience, and if it is a gift, it is a gift to one's self, the artist. To be kind to yourself and knowing. To write all your emotions and put them to the suitable medium, to listen to yourself and pour-out yourself. That is where the gift lies. A good artist does this so well that almost all of the same emotions are conjured-up in the audience and the audience feels the gift in themselves stirring to life and think it is a gift from the artist when it is a gift rising in their own life. Beethoven said that "music should strike fire from the heart of man and bring tears from the eyes of woman". He is, of course, in more modern psychological language, speaking of the feminine and masculine sides of music and emotions, as Beethoven himself both acted in fire and tears when writing his music. My point is that music draws things from people, is the trigger or point of release for one's heart, but is not the heart itself, else only musicians and composers could receive music.
Philosophy does not always require great practice to "be up to snuff". The meal shared may not contain all the richness in the physical food before the diner's, but the richness of the conversation too. I find this conversation in no lack of ability on your part.
Quote whatever you like, it is yours, but here is more complete quote on philosophy.
"As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation -- or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind's wings should have grown."
Greatness simply conquers what is holding it back. Suffering, loneliness, poor health, poor finances, whatever it may be greatness overcomes it. That is what makes greatness great.
Empathy is certainly a better word, yes.
Emotions are complex because people are complex. They want what they cannot or should not have, they refuse to receive what they should, and they are capable of denying to understand things even in themselves. Emotions are mixed with joy and pain, strength and weakness, a desire to touch the stars and the apathy to not take the best course to do so. Most strong emotions are at missing something sorely or receiving something sorely missed. If art grants us one thing, it is the creation and expression of the entire emotional sphere.
Is not this whole conversation philosophical in nature? We are speaking of the values and reality, the theories and thoughts, the underlying reasoning concepts of art. Philosophy is how you conduct you life, and how you conduct your life is how you value what comprises life.
A good question indeed, I would have to think on it… True true, I just think the often enought resulting lonelyness is very sad. And I wonder if the aloneness is necessary. I don't believe anyone's destined to be alone. That is very insighful and true. I'm glad you agree, I avoid pity when I can. It seems pity never helps anything, especially when you want to draw near someone. You cannot be equally close with someone if you have pity because pity means you think of yourself as better in some way. True, art is a great gift. On further thinking I do not think it can be deserved. It can only be held in gratitude and wonder. Like a gift. I suppose yes, I just fear I may not be up to snuff in handling it the fitting way. XD I like that last line, may I quote you on it?
Loneliness is a common disease in humanity, but how much of a disease is it? How can one be lonely in a family, in a crowded room, in a school or neighborhood with a hundred people around them? I know it is not good for man to be alone, but what is loneliness? A longing for a voice, a hand. To be at the end of a day and have so much to say and no one to say it too. It's a sickness that too often people use other people as a simple antidote to their loneliness, rather than fix a root cause. It is said that loneliness is a sign you are desperate need of yourself. That if you cannot stand being alone, you are missing something in yourself, and not another person. Why are people lonely? How can people have the capacity for it? Too often the lonely have nothing to do, or they do not wish to do what they should. Tell me of a lonely person who is not also bored. To read and walk, sing and play music. Much of what loneliness is a basic lack of humanity's richness and benefits and creations. What color can rise if it is not separate? What noise of music or word in poetry can be heard if it is not separate? Too often, to become separate is to become lonely, not for people left behind in the process of growth (such as middle-school friends or such), but for people that one will never meet. It's loneliness between the pages, under the clouds, inside the notes. Most often, people are lonely because they never made friends with themselves. I can't help but feel my take on loneliness is dis-jointed and poor. It is late at night and I have been a very solitary person for a long time. Loneliness has lost its flavor and vibrant misunderstandings. Perhaps you can help fill in the gaps, give your take on loneliness, and elaborate on what you said about destiny. I know that loneliness is not destiny just as suffering is not. I almost feel like deleting the whole previous paragraph and starting over, but I know not where to start.
Pity is too akin to feeling sickness at another's sickness. A feeling of poverty of spirit at another's poverty. I suppose that pity cleans no one's mess, but might spread it more evenly between two or more.
Continued in next post…
True sadly. I don't know, I think it's not the presence of a person, but the presence of a person with a kindred spirit (to use Anne of Green Gables' term) that makes one feel less lonely. Interesting, but I don't know if I agree that lonelness is just you needing something in yourself all the time. I think people are lonely because we are made to be with others of our kind. It is simply how we are. I think that one can be very active and still lonely. Certainly the wealthy, influential, and public people out there, they are not bored, yet they are still lonely. It is far better than you think, in a conversation of opinions there is no wrong answer, at least not as the hourney begins. Often even extroverts, like myself, are lonely in some way. I think that no one is destined to be alone, and if they are then they either 1. Simply havn't found the right people to surround themselves yet. Or 2. Others are too busy, afraid, stuck up, or mean to even try and take the time to understand someone else (which makes me quite livid).
I would object, I would say empathy, if not love or caring or kindness, is what you just defined. Pity feels more to me like the southern use of "bless you heart" which in fact means the opposite. Rarely do people react well to pity, but they prefer to have one pull alongside them.
I would agree. And perhaps I fear I am not good enough to receive a gift of art. But I would agree with most everything else, except that even if a specific item can only be given once, other gifts can be given. I use art to touch others and to get inside my own head. It seems I am somehow smart enough to know how to block myself out, so when I write I am actually discovering things and reasons and meanings for things that are in my head and heart that I did not know.