champorado

[T]he existentialist description of life as meaningless does not imply that there is no reason to live. It implies that there is no invariant, objectively defensible reason to live. Individuals are free to act on the basis of the values that feel valid for them in the specific context in which they find themselves. Thus, far from being a call for individuals to give up on life, existentialism is a call for individuals to live passionately out of their own personal values.

— Martin, Campbell, & Henry, “The Roar of Awakening: Mortality Acknowledgment as a Call to Authentic Living”

Symbolism transforms the phenomenon into an idea, the idea into an image, and in such a way that the idea-in-the-image remains infinitely effective and unattainable—and though it be expressed in every language, it will remain inexpressible.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections

death is nothing at all. i have only slipped away into the next room. i am i, and you are you. whatever we were to each other, that we still are. call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way you always used to. put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. play, smile, think of me, pray for me. let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effort, no trace of a shadow on it. life means all that it ever meant. it is the same as it ever was. there is unbroken continuity. why should i be out of mind because i am out of sight? i am waiting for you, somewhere very near. just around the corner. all is well.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120728065043/https://www.radiohead.com/Archive/Site4/tt006.html

When I’m around a group of people, it’s like my brain checks out. I’m no longer there but somewhere slightly outside myself. I’m able to watch my reactions and to understand the feelings that should be there, but I suddenly feel that I don’t have control over what I do. It’s as if I’ve made a prior arrangement with my body about what it will do, as if my reactions are socially acceptable but aren’t immediately coming from me. Feeling like you’re not the one in control makes you feel that you’re totally out of control, even if everything looks calm from the exterior.

— Katharine Donnelly & Fugen Neziroglu, Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder

I told her that they were doing an unconscious tango—he being irresponsible and she being overly responsible.

“You, like every other daughter in the world, are bonded to your dad. Darwin points out that bonding happens in all species. Your bond with your dad was perfectly normal and necessary. However, I think you’ve mistaken bonding for love. Bonding is not a choice; it’s a biological imperative, necessary for survival. Love is a choice. When you meet an incompetent man who needs you to care for him, you immediately feel warm toward him because you’re bonded to that behavior. You’ve honed your role of taking care of a man, and have been loved for doing it. But love is where you mutually care for one another. You want to admire your lover’s characteristics, not protect him from the ravages of the real world. Your dad loved you, as best as he could, for taking care of him. But some man will love you for all your characteristics, not just the ones that will cover for his mistakes.”

— Catherine Gildiner, Good Morning, Monster: Five Heroic Journeys to Emotional Recovery

“I suppose you love me, in your way,” I said to him one night close to dawn when we lay on the narrow bed. “And how else should I love you—in your way?” he asked. I am still thinking about that.

— Anne Carson, Plainwater: Essays and Poetry