![;] | by www.bawgaj.eu /Brighton now/](https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4537/37819337514_9dc6d224bd_b.jpg)
;] Mongolia 2011; delta 100 [Mongolia] "Independence is happiness." - Susan B. Anthony: photo by Strzemek Przelecki, 19 November 2017
Samuel Johnson: On the Uses of Forgetfulness
Men complain of nothing more frequently than of deficient Memory; and
indeed, every one finds that many of the ideas which he desired to
retain have slipped irretrievably away; that the acquisitions of the
mind are sometimes equally fugitive with the gifts of fortune; and that a
short intermission of attention more certainly lessens knowledge than
impairs an estate.
To assist this weakness of our nature many methods have been
proposed, all of which may be justly suspected of being ineffectual; for
no art of memory, however its effects have been boasted or admired, has
been ever adopted into general use, nor have those who possessed it,
appeared to excel others in readiness of recollection or multiplicity of
attainments.
There is another art of which all have felt the want, tho'
Themistocles only confessed it. We suffer equal pain from the
pertinacious adhesion of unwelcome images, as from the evanescence of
those which are pleasing and useful; and it may be doubted whether we
should be more benefited by the art of Memory or the art of Forgetfulness.
Forgetfulness is necessary to Remembrance. Ideas are retained by
renovation of that impression which time is always wearing away, and
which new images are striving to obliterate. If useless thoughts could
be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would
more frequently recur, and every recurrence would reinstate them in
their former place.
It is impossible to consider, without some regret, how much might
have been learned, or how much might have been invented by a rational
and vigorous application of time, uselessly or painfully passed in the
revocation of events, which have left neither good nor evil behind them,
in grief for misfortunes either repaired or irreparable, in resentment
of injuries known only to ourselves, of which death has put the authors
beyond our power.
Philosophy has accumulated precept upon precept, to warn us against
the anticipation of future calamities. All useless misery is certainly
folly, and he that feels evils before they come may be deservedly
censured; yet surely to dread the future is more reasonable than to
lament the past. The business of life is to go forwards; he who sees
evil in prospect meets it in his way, but he who catches it by
retrospection turns back to find it. That which is feared may sometimes
be avoided, but that which is regretted to-day may be regretted again
tomorrow.
Regret is indeed useful and virtuous, and not only allowable but
necessary, when it tends to the amendment of life, or to admonition of
error which we may be again in danger of committing. But a very small
part of the moments spent in meditation on the past, produce any
reasonable caution or salutary sorrow. Most of the mortifications that
we have suffered, arose from the concurrence of local and temporary
circumstances, which can never meet again; and most of our
disappointments have succeeded those expectations, which life allows not
to be formed a second time.
It would add much to human happiness, if an art could be
taught of forgetting all of which the remembrance is at once useless and
afflictive, if that pain which never can end in pleasure could be
driven totally away, that the mind might perform its functions without
encumbrance, and the past might no longer encroach upon the present.
Little can be done well to which the whole mind is not applied; the
business of every day calls for the day to which it is assigned; and he
will have no leisure to regret yesterday's vexations who resolves not to
have a new subject of regret tomorrow.
But to forget or to remember at pleasure, are equally beyond the
power of man. Yet as memory may be assisted by method, and the decays of
knowledge repaired by stated times of recollection, so the power of
forgetting is capable of improvement. Reason will, by a resolute
contest, prevail over imagination, and the power may be obtained of
transferring the attention as judgment shall direct.
The incursions of troublesome thoughts are often violent and
importunate; and it is not easy to a mind accustomed to their inroads to
expel them immediately by putting better images into motion; but this
enemy of quiet is above all others weakened by every defeat; the
reflection which has been once overpowered and ejected, seldom returns
with any formidable vehemence.
Employment is the great instrument of intellectual dominion. The mind
cannot retire from its enemy into total vacancy, or turn aside from one
object but by passing to another. The gloomy and the resentful are
always found among those who have nothing to do, or who do nothing. We
must be busy about good or evil, and he to whom the present offers
nothing will often be looking backward on the past.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): The Idler no. 72, Saturday, 1st September 1759
night: photo by Andrea Schuh, 24 November 2017
Selfish Gene #2: photo by herr_muell, 29 October 2017
Selfish Gene #2: photo by herr_muell, 29 October 2017
Selfish Gene #2: photo by herr_muell, 29 October 2017
Selfish Gene #2: photo by herr_muell, 29 October 2017
Lochaline Pier, Ardtornish, Highlands of Scotland: photo by Paul Greeves, 5 November 2017
6-DSC02609 [Porto]: photo by Paulo Moreira, 26 October 2017
Tiergarten Berlin: photo by elisachris, 2 July 2017
Tiergarten Berlin: photo by elisachris, 2 July 2017
Tiergarten Berlin: photo by elisachris, 2 July 2017
Riley [Guilford, CT]: photo by Philip Greene, 22 November 2017
Riley [Guilford, CT]: photo by Philip Greene, 22 November 2017
Riley [Guilford, CT]: photo by Philip Greene, 22 November 2017
Sauvie Island, OR - September 2017: photo by gumanow, 21 November 2017
Adding value to a service, adding money to my account: photo by Graham Young, 23 November 2017
Nice November. Museumsinsel Berlin Mitte.: photo by elisachris, 25 November 2017
Nice November. Museumsinsel Berlin Mitte.: photo by elisachris, 25 November 2017
Nice November. Museumsinsel Berlin Mitte.: photo by elisachris, 25 November 2017
On Sundays I golf. I hate golf.: photo by Graham Young, 23 November 2017
Untitled: photo by Cristina De Maria, 30 August 2017
ill-at-ease # 2 ("Thank you Satan - I can split myself..."): photo by herr_muell, 30 July 2017
ill-at-ease # 2 ("Thank you Satan - I can split myself..."): photo by herr_muell, 30 July 2017
ill-at-ease # 2 ("Thank you Satan - I can split myself..."): photo by herr_muell, 30 July 2017
Brussels, Belgium, November 2017: photo by Fabrício Santos, 7 November 2017
Brussels, Belgium, November 2017: photo by Fabrício Santos, 7 November 2017
Brussels, Belgium, November 2017: photo by Fabrício Santos, 7 November 2017
Devious. Kumortali, Kolkata.: photo by Subhajit Naskar, 15 September 2017
Devious. Kumortali, Kolkata.: photo by Subhajit Naskar, 15 September 2017
Devious. Kumortali, Kolkata.: photo by Subhajit Naskar, 15 September 2017
Devious. Kumortali, Kolkata.: photo by Artyt Lerdrakmongkol, 7 November 2017
Little hut [Isafjordur, Iceland]: photo by efo, October 2017
Little hut [Isafjordur, Iceland]: photo by efo, October 2017
Little hut [Isafjordur, Iceland]: photo by efo, October 2017
20171002_112151-01: photo by Wanit Nantasuk, 2 October 2017
20171002_112151-01: photo by Wanit Nantasuk, 2 October 2017
20171002_112151-01: photo by Wanit Nantasuk, 2 October 2017
Untitled: photo by Rammy Narula, 23 October 2017
Untitled: photo by pratyay, 20 October 2016
Untitled: photo by pratyay, 20 October 2016
Untitled: photo by pratyay, 20 October 2016
Untitled [Hamburg-Bremen]: photo by Nikos Tsitsel, 30 September 2017
Sit and Wait For Me [Sharpsburg, PA]: photo by David Grim, 9 November 2017
Sit and Wait For Me [Sharpsburg, PA]: photo by David Grim, 9 November 2017
Sit and Wait For Me [Sharpsburg, PA]: photo by David Grim, 9 November 2017
![;] | by www.bawgaj.eu /Brighton now/](https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4530/38519774616_7338461576_b.jpg)
;] ethiopia 2017, kentmere 1600. “Traveling
is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of
all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off
balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep,
dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or
what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese: photo by Strzemek Przelecki, 22 November 2017
4 comments:
John Prine & Mac Wiseman: I Forgot To Remember To Forget
Beautiful essay by Dr. J., Tom. Should get that final paragraph tattooed on my forearm, Momento style. And David Grim has it going on for Western Pennsylvania's often forlorn, damp and almost well-lighted places. His pictures make me wanna go play the numbers. Just for something to do!
"We must be busy about good or evil, and he to whom the present offers nothing will often be looking backward on the past."
I bow down before this essay.
Tom, I am keeping an eye on your old bailiwick (as it were) by keeping an eye on David Grim's work, and feeling it... those numbers keep coming up that way for me too.
I know. I’m humbled. Thanks. Love Blonox!
Post a Comment