Have you achieved perfectionism lately?
"The delicacy and fragility of the riverside scene are echoed in the deliberate wording of the paoem," (634) As a students of the liberal arts we are, by definition, learning to refine our skills. Some would say their ultimate goal is perfectionism.
"Yes, Christminister shall be my Alma Mater; and i'll be her beloved son, in whom she shall be well pleased. " (31) 1 Thomas Hardy wrote about it [perfectionsm] in Jude the Obscure. Was he perfect? Of course he wasn't.
What do I think about all of this? I perceive it to be about one's conscientious state of mind. It's working those Mill quotes into the next post because you forgot to site them in the last one.
It's something many of us try to achieve. Most of us, at least, appear to be inclined towards perfection (whether we're good at it or not is another story)... Otherwise, we would not have ended up in this place. Personally, I'm always caught between some sort of force pulling me towards something... But what exactly is it? Is it the benevolent forces that pull my being towards perfectionism, towards deciding what to eat or what to complete? Should I, or we, deeply ponder what it is that we should believe or should we act according to the realms of the physical world, the empirical so-to-speak?
Hopkins writes, "His first sighting of the city is visionary in nature". (638)
Then I stumbled across the 3 deadly Ps.
"Yet it was Heaven's deepest purpose to "perfect the earthen," to provide the completeness that imperfection augured:
The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying sound;
What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much good
On the earth the broken acres; in the heaven a perfect
round(594)
Hunger drives us, too!
I find interesting that Mill held somewhat of a similar view, "concerning the foundation of morality, has been accounted the main problem in speculative thought, has occupied the most gifted intellects, and divided them into sects and schools, carrying on a vigorous warfare against one another". [1]http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm
It cerainly is a pattern. It's been present from the beginning of "civilization", mana--so they say.
Perhaps when one reaches the 'EVERLASTING YEA', "wherein all contradition is solved"
Though I disagree with Carlyle. I find happiness in the arts as a form, not as a means of achieving perfectionism. His writings articulated a platform similar to Ruskin, in that, they both thought that happiness was perfecting art, "Carlyle likewise discovered he source of man's Unhappiness in the permanent desire for the Infinite which could never be quite submerged in the depth of the finite". (594)As much as it hurts my soul, my beloved Mill had somewhat of an egocentric view on this as well...
He went on to write about how much poetry heightened his state of mind... poetry that he admitted was imperfect.
My own experience is that I find happiness in the arts themselves as an end. I argue that perfectionism is a matter of subjectivity, or individual interpretation, thus achieving it is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
Is it even humanely possible to obtain such answers to these existential questions?
I honestly don't think I want to reach that place. If there is a God, I am of of the opinion that it is probably a creator that would not want to harm those things it has created. Rather test them with rigorous circumstances and events that strengthen their state conscientiousness, well-being, tact and happiness.
Those of us who are driven will ultimately find happiness in our own meaning of it. As my Buddhist friend replied tonight about his religion, "it has so many different ways of being interpreted that it's practiced in many different ways".
I leave you with a quote from Carlyle:
"Do the Duty which lies nearest thee_,' which thou knowest to be a Duty!" (608). "Be no longer a Chaos, but a World, or even Worldkin. Produce! Produce!" (608)
Though I don't consider myself a Buddhist, my desire to produce is willing me to stay at home to achieve the task of completing this blog and settle for a cheese burger.
Is it strange how our conscious often wills us towards the most self-fulfilling?
I somewhat disagree, regarding its premise, and the whole city being the underlying symbol of perfection and triumph. It's his will to achieve perfection that symbolizes his desire to acheive an 'innate' or 'aquired' level of perfection.
What prompted this pattern in Hardy? Whose to say he had it at all? What makes us think that he wasn't just being creative. Why must we read into this? Was it God, or his struggle with the existence of a creator. Whose to say?
This all made me think of the pattern of conversion, and how it may have been relevant to the treatment of animals. Was Jude a man of morality regarding animals by choice? Or was he caught in the midst of the conversion and under the control of God's will, unwillingly?
In pondering the pattern of conversion, I found myself considering the possibility of an innate gene that might be present in those of us striving to be perfectionist (note I wrote"striving"--I'm speaking for myself here, but observing as well). Then I became bored and started looking for something we've discussed in class regarding our tendencies to be perfecionists...
Then I stumbled across the 3 deadly Ps.
"Yet it was Heaven's deepest purpose to "perfect the earthen," to provide the completeness that imperfection augured:
The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying sound;
What was good shall be good, with, for evil, so much good
On the earth the broken acres; in the heaven a perfect
round(594)
Maybe Hardy felt there were forces, benevolent and/or wicked, and that our innate senses tell us this, but we can't quite pin point them.
Who is winning the age struggle between good vs. evil?
"Full of religion, or at least of religiosity, as our Friend has since exhibited himself, he hides not that, in those days, he was wholly irreligious: "Doubt had darkened into Unbelief," (606) This sounds awfully familiar. The forces of perfectionism are actually pulling me away from my dietary habits. And I've begun doing things like eating fast food! This has become a somewhat of a bearing on my conscience. The utilitarian on left shoulder, who whispers n my ear, tells me that feeling of guilt, however, may be part of my journey down the road of perfectionism.
"Full of religion, or at least of religiosity, as our Friend has since exhibited himself, he hides not that, in those days, he was wholly irreligious: "Doubt had darkened into Unbelief," (606) This sounds awfully familiar. The forces of perfectionism are actually pulling me away from my dietary habits. And I've begun doing things like eating fast food! This has become a somewhat of a bearing on my conscience. The utilitarian on left shoulder, who whispers n my ear, tells me that feeling of guilt, however, may be part of my journey down the road of perfectionism.
Certainly, I will eventually grow tired of eating fast food and my existential consciousness will gravitate my forces towards a higher level of existence. I'm certain. But as for now time will have gotten my goat and willed my towards the ills of fast food convenience, from time to time.
Hunger drives us, too!As Carlyle might say, as he believes and has written in somewhat of a allegorical manner. "'This, says our professor, was the CENTER OF INDIFFERENCE I had now reached; through which whoso travels from the Negative Pole the positive must necessarily pass."
I find interesting that Mill held somewhat of a similar view, "concerning the foundation of morality, has been accounted the main problem in speculative thought, has occupied the most gifted intellects, and divided them into sects and schools, carrying on a vigorous warfare against one another". [1]http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm
It cerainly is a pattern. It's been present from the beginning of "civilization", mana--so they say.
Perhaps when one reaches the 'EVERLASTING YEA', "wherein all contradition is solved"
Though I disagree with Carlyle. I find happiness in the arts as a form, not as a means of achieving perfectionism. His writings articulated a platform similar to Ruskin, in that, they both thought that happiness was perfecting art, "Carlyle likewise discovered he source of man's Unhappiness in the permanent desire for the Infinite which could never be quite submerged in the depth of the finite". (594)As much as it hurts my soul, my beloved Mill had somewhat of an egocentric view on this as well...
"His view now was that the instructed or educated few had the crucial task of maintaining and developing a considered agreement amongst themselves". (692) Somewhat egocentric in viewpoint if you ask me. And it is somewhat contradictory given his insight on the minority view. But I digress after I note this fact:
He went on to write about how much poetry heightened his state of mind... poetry that he admitted was imperfect.
My own experience is that I find happiness in the arts themselves as an end. I argue that perfectionism is a matter of subjectivity, or individual interpretation, thus achieving it is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
Is it even humanely possible to obtain such answers to these existential questions?
I honestly don't think I want to reach that place. If there is a God, I am of of the opinion that it is probably a creator that would not want to harm those things it has created. Rather test them with rigorous circumstances and events that strengthen their state conscientiousness, well-being, tact and happiness.
Those of us who are driven will ultimately find happiness in our own meaning of it. As my Buddhist friend replied tonight about his religion, "it has so many different ways of being interpreted that it's practiced in many different ways".
I leave you with a quote from Carlyle:
"Do the Duty which lies nearest thee_,' which thou knowest to be a Duty!" (608). "Be no longer a Chaos, but a World, or even Worldkin. Produce! Produce!" (608)
Though I don't consider myself a Buddhist, my desire to produce is willing me to stay at home to achieve the task of completing this blog and settle for a cheese burger.
Is it strange how our conscious often wills us towards the most self-fulfilling?
I honestly think it was Hardy's obscure level subconsciousness that led him to write like he did in Jude the Obscure.
[1] Hardy, Jude the Obsure. (2nd Edition) Edited by Norman Page New York.
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