#123 | Roll the Dice

a poem

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” — Mother Teresa

“When you stop doing something, it doesn't mean you are rejecting the previous work. That's the mistake; it's not rejecting it, it's saying, 'I have exploited it enough now and I wish to take a look at another corner.'” — David Hockney

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This week, a poem. But rather than reading it yourself, be lazy and take a moment of your Sunday to watch Lex Friedman reading it for you. He does a good job. Roll the Dice is inspiring; it makes you want to get out of bed.

Roll the Dice (Go All the Way) by Charles Bukowski

if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.

if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.

go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.

do it, do it, do it.
do it.

all the way
all the way.

you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter, its
the only good fight
there is.

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My week in books

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. I love this novel. It’s my third time through it and, like all good books, it keeps getting better. I understand it more. In it, Kundera reveals the beautiful filth of the human condition; living lightly is not such a paradise, he says, since no foundations get built. No anchor is lowered — and an empty nihilism creeps up. It’s quotable throughout. Here’s one:

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind’s true moral test, it's fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.

And another:

Yes, a husband’s funeral is a wife’s true wedding! The climax of her life’s work! The reward for her sufferings!

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Live well,

Hector