EAT THIS CAKE

Drama

Does one need drama in one’s life?—Drama like what’s in the great novels and movies? I’ve been taught to seek balance, happiness, and stability, for these qualities enhance life. But what if I have balance without ever have had suffered? Is life complete without suffering? The characters in the books I read seem to be better, stronger individuals after experiencing love affairs, oppression, and deceit. Maybe these are what I need to be a stronger person. Maybe I need them so that I can rise above them or work through them. To experience true depression, or loss, or heart break may make the good times more meaningful.

The Service Industry

Looking for jobs isn’t too tough. I just visit Craigslist, search, and send out applications with personalized cover letters. Landing one is somewhat tougher. Some of these Craigslist postings ask that an ideal candidate have “a passion for customer driven service.” But who, in all honesty, has a passion for customer service? I know a lot of people in the service industry and I sincerely doubt that any one of them has a serious passion for serving customers. The service sector is an industry for people without any sort of specialized training—not a career path for which people have a serious passion. You serve to make instant cash. It’s the money people have a passion for, not servicing others. Enough with the lies. Let’s be honest. 

"But isn’t that the cause of all the trouble? Words! We all have a world of things inside ourselves and each one of us has his own private world. How can we understand each other if the words I use have the sense and the value that I expect them to have, but whoever is listening to me inevitably thinks that those same words have a different sense and value, because of the private world he has inside himself too. We think we understand each other: but we never do."

Luigi Pirandello (Six Characters in Search of an Author)

"… mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become."

Viktor E. Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning)

"But I repeat for the hundredth time, there is one case, one only, when man may consciously, purposely, desire what is injurious to himself, what is stupid, very stupid—simply in order to have the right to desire for himself even what is very stupid and not to be bound by an obligation to desire only what is sensible."

Dostoyevsky (Notes from the Underground)

"You know, it’s such a peculiar thing—our idea of mankind in general. We all have a sort of vague glowing picture when we say that, something solemn, big and important. But actually all we know of it is the people we meet in our lifetime. Look at them. Do you know any you’d feel big and solemn about? There’s nothing but housewives haggling at pushcarts, drooling brats who write dirty words on the sidewalks, and drunken debutantes. Or their spiritual equivalents. As a matter of fact, one can feel some respect for people when they suffer. They have a certain dignity. But have you ever looked at them when they’re enjoying themselves? That’s when you see the truth. Look at those who spend the money they’ve slaved for—at amusement parks and side shows. Look at those who’re rich and have the whole world open to them. Observe what the pick out for enjoyment. Watch them in the smarter speak-easies. That’s your mankind in general. I don’t want to touch it."

Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)