There always seems to be a thin line between comedy and tragedy, and sometimes it depends on which side of the line you're standing.
Louis CK straddles that line to the point of absurdity--when sometimes it reveals a truth. Here's his recent must-see take on happiness.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/20/louis-ck-beautiful-rant-against-texting-while-driving_n_3961466.html
I loved hearing Louis say this a few nights ago.
ReplyDeleteToo often, as in every fucking day, do I walk past a fellow human only to see eyes glued to a screen. No one says "good morning."
No one I make eye contact with acknowledges my existence, except maybe that pathetic head nod we've reduced ourselves too.
I ask what is more real, the conversation of two strangers at a crosswalk or two friends typing shorthand about cats?
I could rant about this endlessly, but instead I'm going to go ahead and get off the internet Do something real with this information instead of talking about doing it.
Thanks Dean, more people need the honesty of CK.
-brennan
Thanks Brennan for the comment. I, too, must get out and do something real today. See you in class.
DeleteToo true, Brennan. Would you like to join me in having a "Free Hugs" sign this semester? I'm thinking after Fall Break when everyone's upset to be back in school. Any time before then would be fine, obviously, but I've found that after the break, people really need those hugs. You'd be surprised at how much cheer something so simple spreads.
DeleteI'm pretty disappointed in the glazed-eyes, too :/
I loved that insight. It's really fascinatingly true--people are too scared of their own emotions. It's become the natural response to just avoid bad feelings by trying to force them to be replaced with something completely different. Penn Jillette (there's an emerging theme here, isn't there?) talked in Every Day is an Atheist Holiday about what he called "sick days"--when you've got seriously emotional things going on, you can't just try to force yourself through them. You have to let yourself have those low moments otherwise it just gets bottled up and intensifies. As Louis pointed out, the combination consumerist/information age thing is really cutting us off from our true selves in order to feel "connected" to other people and we lose sight of the fact that, sometimes, you can't be a fucking superhuman. Sometimes you need to let yourself have that "moment of clarity." Sometimes you must come to terms with reality. You can't try to fight it off. The universe is infinitely more capable than your own facade of mental will-power.
ReplyDeleteThe trademark of the wise man is not that he is never wrong, but that he is readily able to admit when he is.
I love that you put connected in quotes. How connected are we, really, when we, as Brennan said, sent "shorthand about cats?" That visceral quality is utterly lost on people some times.
DeleteLouie confuses me sometimes, I can't tell if he's a genius, or just honest, and I don't understand why I correlate the two. The knee-jerk reaction to laugh or find humour when things get a tad dreary is an interesting topic. I think we should bring it up in class. I personally can't stand emotional moments and have panic attacks when I feel I'm being trapped in someones chemical imbalance. (if we can call sadness an imbalance.)
ReplyDelete