Brilliant reframe on adversity. The distinction betwen pain as inevitable versus suffering as optional cuts deep. I had a rough patch where every loss felt like failure, but realizing the story I told myself mattered more than the events changed everything. The Sinatra angle nails it, his comebacks weren't about denying setbacks but rebuilding with what actualy remained.
Sinatra was a tough-minded maven of resilience and reinvention. A great singer whose phrasing influenced Miles Davis. But he was no high level life-coach with a polished halo: he was also an apologist and participant in corruption.
Beyond Bukowski's mordant "don't try" I would say be extremely wary of being assimilated into any social trance. It pays to be an independent critical thinker, peer behind the veil and look at groups structurally and systemically. Whether mainstream psychiatry, religious cults, narcissistic families or multilevel marketing, the basic algorithm is the same: standardized human beings are the product, and the output is control.
And grinning grifters and gurus with saviour complexes shilling alternative psychological, wellness and spiritual visions are often the worst of all. They may have a smaller budget, but the predatory maw is just as overweening and even more ambitious.
Naivite and idealism may often comfort and meaning, but the anaesthetic of fantasy is not a lie that tells the truth, and ignorance is not bliss beyond the blind love bombing trajectory of denial and suspended awareness.
Brilliant reframe on adversity. The distinction betwen pain as inevitable versus suffering as optional cuts deep. I had a rough patch where every loss felt like failure, but realizing the story I told myself mattered more than the events changed everything. The Sinatra angle nails it, his comebacks weren't about denying setbacks but rebuilding with what actualy remained.
“Why me?” is always the wrong question people ask themselves. “Why not me” is the right question.
Sinatra was a tough-minded maven of resilience and reinvention. A great singer whose phrasing influenced Miles Davis. But he was no high level life-coach with a polished halo: he was also an apologist and participant in corruption.
Beyond Bukowski's mordant "don't try" I would say be extremely wary of being assimilated into any social trance. It pays to be an independent critical thinker, peer behind the veil and look at groups structurally and systemically. Whether mainstream psychiatry, religious cults, narcissistic families or multilevel marketing, the basic algorithm is the same: standardized human beings are the product, and the output is control.
And grinning grifters and gurus with saviour complexes shilling alternative psychological, wellness and spiritual visions are often the worst of all. They may have a smaller budget, but the predatory maw is just as overweening and even more ambitious.
Naivite and idealism may often comfort and meaning, but the anaesthetic of fantasy is not a lie that tells the truth, and ignorance is not bliss beyond the blind love bombing trajectory of denial and suspended awareness.
Fall down seven times get up eight.
Hang ups, let downs, bad breaks, set backs, natural fact is, you gotta pay, taxes.
Another tune with a slight variation: