Born Shouting

To paraphrase Sly, who infamously never said ‘Don’t push me‘ in First Blood (he said ‘Don’t push it‘ in various ways)…

Don’t count me!

As a person in a generation that has so many numbers surrounding and defining us (NHS number, National Insurance number, bank account number, annual income amount, number of shares this and that bank …) I fear that those numbers begin to become me.

I feel I need to heed the warnings of those who came before…(here comes Tamkin again…)

The money. They make a killing by fantasy. Now, counting any number is always a sadistic activity. Like Hitting. In the bible, the Jews wouldn’t allow you to count them. They knew it was sadistic.

Dr Tamkin in ‘Seize the Day (Penguin Modern Classics)‘ by Saul Bellow.

“You are Number Six.”
“I am not a number — I am a free man!”

The Prisoner

Money is a counter in the game of life, who plays best or is luckiest has most. It could be worse, we could be hacking each other into small pieces with stone axes. Read the rest of this entry »

I think it’s a great book (Saul Bellow’s novel with the same name as this post) and I love the carpe diem sentiment. However, is such a attitude to life - to live in the present moment ignoring the past and the future really one that is sustainable at any level - environmental, social or economic?

Personally, I think not, but it’s essential to Seize the Day when the opportunity arises.

…The spiritual compensation is what I look for. Bringing people into the here-and-now. The real universe. That’s the present moment. The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real - the here-and-now. Seize the day.

Dr Tamkin in ‘Seize the Day (Penguin Modern Classics)‘ by Saul Below.

(I’ve realised that all the quotes I’ve taken from ‘Seize the Day’ are the words of Dr Tamkin - a charlatan and fraud … what does that say about me?)

Despite being a chancer, rogue and down-right charlatan Dr Tamkin is certainly a wise man, I think most of us could benefit from living in the here-and-now rather than on the crest of the what-if wave…

You should try some of my here-and-now mental exercises. It stops you from thinking so much about the future and the past and cuts down confusion…

Nature only knows one thing, and that’s the present. Present, present, eternal present, like a big, huge, giant wave - colossal, bright and beautiful, full of life and death, climbing into the sky, standing in the seas. You must go along with the actual, the Here-and-Now, the glory.

Dr Tamkin in ‘Seize the Day (Penguin Modern Classics)‘ by Saul Below.