Brain Food #710
Matches struck unexpectedly in the dark
Thoughts of the day
Today is Virginia Woolf’s birthday, a writer who understood the workings of the human soul and their connection to the mind more deeply than most, and tried to bring those to the surface through her stream of consciousness writing style.
While pondering one of life’s eternal questions in To The Lighthouse, Woolf suggests that the great revelation perhaps never comes:
“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.”
One’s primary goal, then could be to look for the daily miracles, the matches struck unexpectedly in the dark. Not aiming for grandiosity, or fame, but just to free oneself, whatever one’s freedom entails:
“I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.”
(from the diaries)
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