dagblog - Comments for "Brother, can you spare some wisdom?"

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Michael Wolraich — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:28:35 +0000

In reply to Brother, can you spare some wisdom?

Great quote, though.

acanuck — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:51:53 +0000

In reply to That's about the dumbest

Great quote, though.

That's about the dumbest

acanuck — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:51:03 +0000

In reply to I am reminded of the Wizard's

That's about the dumbest thing I ever heard.

"You only live one life, and

DF — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:07:19 +0000

In reply to Brother, can you spare some wisdom?

"You only live one life, and you make all your mistakes, and learn what not to do, and that's the end of you." - Richard Feynman

I am reminded of the Wizard's

armchair guerrilla — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:40:16 +0000

In reply to Brother, can you spare some wisdom?

I am reminded of the Wizard's words of wisdom from Taxi Driver:

Wizard: Look, look at it this way, you know uh, a man, a man takes a job, you know, and that job, I mean like that, and that it becomes what he is. You know like uh, you do a thing and that's what you are. Like I've been a, I've been a cabbie for seventeen years, ten years at night and I still don't own my own cab. You know why? 'Cause I don't want to. I must be what I, what I want. You know, to be on the night shift drivin' somebody else's cab. Understand? You, you, you become, you get a job, you you become the job. One guy lives in Brooklyn, one guy lives in Sutton Place, you get a lawyer, another guy's a doctor, another guy dies, another guy gets well, and you know, people are born. I envy you your youth. Go out and get laid. Get drunk, you know, do anything. 'Cause you got no choice anyway. I mean we're all f---ed, more or less you know.
Travis: Yeah, I don't know. That's about the dumbest thing I ever heard.
Wizard: I'm not Bertrand Russell. Well what do ya want. I'm a cabbie you know. What do I know? I mean, I don't even know what the f--- you're talkin' about.
Travis: Yeah I don't know. Maybe I don't know either.
Wizard: Don't worry so much. Relax Killer, you're gonna be all right. I know I seen a lot of people and uh, I know.

D, perhaps, like the

Michael Wolraich — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:45:54 +0000

In reply to Brother, can you spare some wisdom?

D, perhaps, like the scarecrow, you already have wisdom but don't know it. In Plato's Apology, the oracle of Apollo pronounces Socrates the wisest of men. Socrates responds:

When I heard of the oracle I began to reflect: What can the god mean by this riddle? I know very well that I am not wise, even in the smallest degree.

People say that I am "a wise man." For the bystanders always think that I am wise myself in any matter wherein I refute another. But, gentlemen, I believe that the god is really wise, and that by this oracle he meant that human wisdom is worth little or nothing. I do not think that he meant that Socrates was wise. He only made use of my name, and took me as an example, as though he would say to men, "He, among you, is the wisest who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is really worth nothing at all."

One other apt Apology quote for a Deadman post:

For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to a man. But men fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils.

I think what you're feeling

Orlando — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:50:45 +0000

In reply to Brother, can you spare some wisdom?

I think what you're feeling is what drives many men your age and a little bit older to get divorced, buy sports cars, and marry 20 year old blondes. And what drives many women to get divorced and get medicated. Nobody told us when we were kids that when we got to Oz, we'd find out the wizard was a sham.

Come to think of it, they may have tried to tell us, but we were too enthralled with the Lollipop Guild to get the message.

I'm coming to terms with the fact that there's no magic ending, but what I really wish people would talk about more is how hard it is to deal with a parent who is sick, and how that could happen a lot earlier than you thought. It was a shock that I'm not sure I'm over, 15 years in.

I feel for you Deadman, been

Bluesplashy — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:44:47 +0000

In reply to Brother, can you spare some wisdom?

I feel for you Deadman, been there done that. But I will tell you what no one told me when I was there (unlike you I didn't have the wisdom to ask!) No one has that mythic wisdom you think they do, repeat, No One. You are there all ready. You display more wisdom then you think because you are looking at others in a little slice of their time. If you watched them 24/7 like you get to watch yourself you would see the writer that pulled all the philosophical threads together can't communicate with his 4 year old son so he gets frustrated and hits him. Relax, if you got people that love you, aren't too big of a financial burden on society and a little time to help someone, you are doing better than 75% of the population.