We’ve got time
Octavian Paler

We’ve got time for everything,
to sleep, to always be on the run,
to regret having made mistakes, then to mistake again,
to judge others and absolve ourselves,
we’ve got time to read and time to write,
to make corrections and to regret we wrote,
we’ve got time to make plans not to respect them,
we’ve got time to believe in illusions, then later to search through their ashes.

We’ve got time for ambitions and diseases,
time to blame the fate and its details,
time to look at the clouds, to watch the adverts or a random accident
we’ve got time to banish our questions,
to delay giving answers
time to shatter dreams and to then re-invent them
we’ve got time to make friends, then time to lose them
we’ve got time to receive lessons to then forget about them
we’ve got time to be given gifts and not to understand them.
We’ve got time for everything,

We only haven’t got time for a bit of tenderness
When just about to make time for it, we die.

I learned a few things in life and I’d like to share them with you!!
I learned you can’t make someone love you
All you can do is to be loved.
The rest… depends on others.
I learned that regardless of how much I care
Others might not.
I learned that it takes years to build up trust
And just a few seconds to destroy it
I learned that it doesn’t matter WHAT you’ve got in life
But WHOM you got
I learned that your charm helps you for about 15 minutes
After that though you’d better be good at it (…)

I learned that regardless of how you cut
Any thing has two sides

I learned that we have to say kind, warm good-byes to our loved ones
As it might be the last time we see them

I learned that we can keep on going long
After we said we can’t anymore.

I learned that heroes do what they have to, when they have to
Regardless of the consequences

I learned that there are some that love you
But don’t know how to show it
I learned that when I am angry, I have the RIGHT to be angry
But no right to be mean

I learned that true friendship survives the distance
And so does true love
I learned that when someone doesn’t love you as you’d like
It doesn’t mean that they don’t truly love you

I learned that regardless how good a friend is
He is still going to hurt you sometimes
And you’ll have to forgive him for that.

I learned that it’s not always enough to be forgiven
Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself
I learned that even though you’re in pain
The world won’t stop because of that.

I learned that the past and experiences can influence your personality
But YOU’re responsible for who you become
I learned that if two argue it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other
Also, if they don’t argue doesn’t prove they don’t.
I learned that sometime one must come first
Then his deeds.

I learned that two can look at the same thing
And see totally different things
I learned that regardless of what the immediate result may be
Those who can be honest to themselves succeed in life

I learned that your life can be changed in a few hours
By some that don’t even know you

I learned that when you think you haven’t got anything left to give
You’ll always find the strength to help a friend crying for help

I learned that writing
Same as speaking
Can soothe the soul

I learned that the ones you care for most
Are taken from you too soon…

I learned that is too hard to see
The line between being kind, not hurting anyone and stating your opinion.

I learned to love
So I can be loved.

I learned,
by Octavian Paler

A child who doesn’t like Jules Verne at all, but finds Edgar Allan Poe very, very charming will undoubtedly grow up (grow up? Ha ha, it’s getting FUNNY) to love Marry Shelley’s Frankenstein and find it one of the most Romantic (and romantic) novels ever.
I know it might sound odd, but when you think about it, you realise that horror is a very important feeling in Romanticism; Gothic is somewhere in between terror and romance and stereotypical characters like ghosts, Byronic heroes, mad women, angels/fallen angels and magicians are all very Romantic. Shall I go further and say prosecuted maidens and vampires could even become, in the right shade of light, erotic?

I haven’t thought about Allan Poe in ages (shame!) and I wasn’t particularly excited about this Halloween. What about an Edgar Allan Poe by Roger Corman Halloween all-nighter? The Raven, The Pit and Pendulum, The Tomb of Ligeia and The masque of Red Death. Temping, tempting, tempted!

And now, my go for the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog!

Nice try, but nothing like the ink and sepia of Caspar David Friedrich whom I greatly admire for managing to stay only “half mad”!

“Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. (…) It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words”

These are J. Berger’s words. As I have said in my previous post, I do love reading him. Sometimes I even agree with him! In his view the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. For example, in the evenings we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from the sun. Yet this explanation, he says, never quite fits the sight. And he is right, it doesn’t. But I still do not see the gap between words and seeing. The relation between them is settled; regardless of what we know, we say the sun goes down. To fit the sight when we actually know the sun doesn’t go anywhere. 

I’ve read this little book quite a few times. I will read it again. There are seven essays. Four of them use both words and images, while the other three use only images. And it’s amazing to see how a few images – pictorial essays – raise as many questions as the verbal essays. 

The aim of this book is to start a process of questioning. It worked for me; you might want to see if it works for you

I used to have sympathy for Picasso’s blue period. For his depression, for the trauma caused by the suicide of his good friend, and for having to live in very poor conditions while being away from home. Not anymore.

Reading “Dora Maar – with and without Picasso” I’ve understood that, later in life, he did his best to make Dora’s life a blue period. Successful man that Picasso was! And honest too, as he once told his lover:  ” for me there are two kinds of women – goddesses and doormats”…