Posted by Second Life Resident Torley Olmstead. Visit Here.

Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.

There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.

'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.

Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.

― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)

by Werner Herzog

Source: Werner Herzog’s Maniacal Quests ―A newly published travel journal shows how walking, like filmmaking, brings us to the naked core of existence. (Noah Isenberg)

again relevant

Early 21st century angst is troubling Olly's consciousness. Deep in his Trauffaut phase, Olly contemplates sparse minimalism and his own debilitating self-awareness of rejection. What is good in the world? Rawhide? A soft bed? Cat shit on a city sidewalk? Nothing, nothing.

Thank you, Liz! Our beautiful cranes came finally -- truly snail mail. sometimes it takes a little longer for things to get to certain parts of Montana. I love them both. it was difficult to tell which one was for me and which was Tim's -- but we settled on the orange for me, the red for Tim.

Here, my crane is contemplating the idea of Peace ... contemplating how peace might have manifested in it's own life, now that it has landed in Montana ... in the Rocky Mountains, where snow muffles loud jarring sounds, even in March .... contemplating how peace might show up in the near future, now that it has landed right smack dab in the middle of the migratory flyway - amidst snow geese, sandhill cranes, raptors and songbirds -- a huge highway of song, lust, deep color and wide, ribbon-like peace.

She -- this orange creature of angles and flexibility -- believes in peace. Believes peace is possible. Very possible. Even likely. Maybe that makes her an idealist. Maybe that makes her a dreamer. She has heard of dreams coming true ...

This series of paper crane images are for Liz's (Eshu's) amazing Paper Crane Project. Please check it out -- it's going to be something even more wonderful as more and more people receive their cranes, made by Liz, and share what their cranes are doing once out of the package!

Mysticism is a perceptional enquiry of experiencing that which is existentially true. Intellectual enquiry is a psychological exercise, could be unrelated to the existential. -Sg #MysticEye

@HuluTheaterMSG

Slice of life with existential introspection

Femeia, moştenire culturală şi existenţială

An existential advisory

The Framework of Non-Ordinary Realities

its very existential isnt it? haha

Puscifer

at The Greek Theatre

Los Angeles, CA

June 12, 2022

All photos © Kaley Nelson Photography - www.KaleyNelson.com

When I am in a bad mood, all I see is crap... what is this??

How could that ever be even remotely funny?

Or is it all in my head? ;p

East 4th and Lafayette (old Tower Records building)

Three Peacocks -- God on the Ground

By: Stephen W. Simpson, Ph.D.

www.divinecaroline.com/article/22196/48183-peacocks--god-...

I freak out three or four times a year. It’s so consistent that I refer to it as my Quarterly Early Midlife Existential Panic Attack (QEMEPA). I wake up one morning and think, “Where is my life going? Why am I not making more money by now? How am I going to put quadruplets through college? My work makes me happy, but is this what I’m supposed to be doing? Can I make more money and still be happy? Have my pants shrunk or is it me?” These episodes last for about a week, leading to reckless behavior. I start exploring new career opportunities with wild abandon. I listen to get-rich-quick infomercials for a full thirty seconds before changing the channel. I eat and drink too much and sleep too little. I have grandiose visions of wealth and success one minute, then see portents of poverty and despair the next. My latest QEMEPA was more resilient than most. It lasted over two weeks with no end in sight. It was so bad that I hit the Prayer Panic Button.

While I was driving to work, I begged God to do something that would make me feel better right away. Of course, I don’t think God really works that way. I believe that God does stuff on God’s time, and it’s usually not a good idea to rush him. “God,” I said. “I really don’t need much. Just—”

I saw something blocking my path. It was so out of place that it took my brain a few seconds to figure out what my eyes were seeing. In the middle of the sidewalk stood three peacocks, standing in a line across my path, about six inches apart from each other.

I slowed to a walk. They remained still as I approached, watching me in all their green and blue glory. I stepped aside and passed them on the grass. Their heads pivoted in unison me, observing me as I passed. They didn’t seem frightened or even curious. It was as if they were saying, “You see us and we see you. Satisfied?”

I started running again as a smile spread across my face. Then it turned into a chuckle. Then I was laughing so hard that I had to stop running. I felt both overjoyed and silly for forgetting something very important: God is an artist.

If you’re like me, you want direct answers from God. You want problems solved fast. Sometimes that’s what we need and God is gracious enough provide it. But I think he prefers to paint us a picture. He shows off just a little bit of his love and power to calm us down. By sending those three peacocks into my path, God gave me all the reassurance that I needed. He told me, “I’m here. I love you. That’s all you need to know.”

Nowadays, trusting God is more important than ever. A lot of scary things are happening in the world. In times like these, it’s easy to get annoyed with God. “Are you asleep at the wheel, Lord?” we want to shout. “How about a little help down here?” That’s when we have to start looking for peacocks. We have to work harder to find God’s artistry in the world and trust that he’s in charge and he has a plan. And when we don’t get our peacocks, maybe God’s waiting for us to take responsibility and work harder for change.

Femeia, moştenire culturală şi existenţială

Femeia, moştenire culturală şi existenţială

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existential paranoid question of the day: is he taking a picture of someone taking a picture of me???

Toby took this picture and I love it. Somehow that puppet hand speaks to me...

Lifehacker had a post commenting on the minimalist lifestyle. The post suggested that such a life, avoiding owning too many physical things had advantages, but shouldn’t be oversold. Many responses ensued that raised existential questions aplenty. One post was this one:

I live in the real world.

The response seems like a suggestion that life’s purpose was established by evolution as:

survive and procreate.

At least that’s what I read into it. Each paragraph basically says have more stuff because that will:

impress women (allowing you to reproduce);

make your opinions more respected (give you power, ensure your

survival);

impress peers including those who can give you the opportunity to

acquire opportunities to acquire still more stuff; and

in general to follow an imperative of competition promote your own

success and to know that you have “been successful”.

Owning and acquiring things usually does do all these things. Realistically that’s true, and hence the chorus of “I live in the real world”. The responses bottom line seems to be: “he who dies with the most toys wins”. I find this sentiment (that I think is pretty common), kind of sad and depressing, and I hope it’s not all there is.

Aren’t we at the point of being self aware enough to think we have purposes other than just success in the sense that living long enough to pass our genes along defined it. Aren’t we aware that we are part of a larger whole? I think God gives this awareness. I’d like to hope that my life and existence will have ultimately contributed some things that will make the world better for others better in some way.

Bill Gate and Warren Buffet with their philanthropic activity I think realize this. They don’t want their legacies to be just a bunch of stuff they accumulated for themselves, and none of which likely will prevent their dying like the rest of us. Most of us won’t have the opportunity to have such a potential positive impact, I certainly won’t.

I hope that things I’ve acquired or produced may in a very few cases be of use to people I’ve never met. Things that I’ve accumulated but given away. Photos or writing that can be copied for other may stimulate an interesting thought or make someone’s day a little brighter. That part of why I’ve been putting a lot of stuff on the web of late hoping something useful for others will survive me.

In any case, case I hope their a better answer to the “why do we exist?” question than to accumulate stuff to:

survive and procreate.

Also found here at my blog.

Black & white chance: contradiction?

there I go being existential again.

www.silentfoto.com

silentfotoblog.blogspot.com

C/O Berlin is opening SHOOT! . Existential Photography tonight at 7 p.m. at the Postfuhramt, Oranienburgerstrasse 35/36.

You are all cordially invited to join us and find out about the peculiar fascination of fairground shooting galleries: making a target of one’s own ego, or—for the price of a picture—succumbing to the temptation of staging a duel with yourself as the opponent.

C/O Berlin, 4.Februar 2011

www.co-berlin.info/index.php

Ausstellung

SHOOT! . Fotografie existentiell

5. Februar bis 27. März 2011

Eröffnung Freitag, 4. Februar 2011, 19 Uhr

One of my existential walks through White Clay Creek State Park in Delaware. A gloomy, overcast, December day. Wet rotting leaves cushioning my steps, surrounded by moss and fungus.

Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.

There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.

'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.

Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.

― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)

by Werner Herzog

Source: Werner Herzog’s Maniacal Quests ―A newly published travel journal shows how walking, like filmmaking, brings us to the naked core of existence. (Noah Isenberg)

Thanks for the title Chi.

One of my dearest friends wrote and directed this play for our High School...sparse set...

Femeia, moştenire culturală şi existenţială