echo0918

35 years old

Los Angeles, CA

Female

About

The heaviest of burdens is...simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.

Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant.

What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?
...
All languages that derive from Latin form the word "compassion" by combining the prefix meaning "with" (com-) and the root meaning "suffering" (Late Latin, passio). In other languages - Czech, Polish, German, and Swedish, for instance - this word is translated by a noun formed of an equivalent prefix combined with the word that means "feeling" (Czech, sou-cit; Polish, wspól-czucie; German, Mit-gefühl; Swedish, medkänsla).

In langauges that derive from Latin, "compassion" means: we cannot look on coolly as others suffer; or, we sympathize with those who suffer. Another word with approximately the same meaning, "pity" (French, pitié; Italian, pietà; etc.), connotes a certain condescension towards the sufferer. "To take pity on a woman" means that we are better off than she, that we stoop to her level, lower ourselves.

That is why the word "compassion" generally inspires suspicion; it designates what is considered an inferior, second-rate sentiment that has little to do with love. To love someone out of compassion means not really to love.

In languages that form the word "compassion" not from the root "suffering" but from the root "feeling," the word is used in approximately the same way, but to contend that it designates a bad or inferior sentiment is difficult. The secret strength of its etymology floods the word with another light and gives it a broader meaning: to have compassion (co-feeling) means not only to be able to live with the other's misfortune but also to feel with him any emotion - joy, anxiety, happiness, pain. This kind of compassion ... therefore signifies the maximal capacity of affective imagination, the art of emotional telepathy. In the hierarchy of sentiments, then, it is supreme.

-Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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Videos(5)

Kevin Barnes being mauled by rabid female fans at the Glass House (short clip)

Text(81)

Jan 27, 2009

Salut

A few baby steps to celebrate:

Since January 6th, I have had 3.25 cigarettes. As much as I loved smoking, I look forward to all the experiences that cannot be had with smoking still in my life. These days, whenever I crave a cigarette, I put on my sneaks and off I go for …

Carnage

A while ago, I had had a dream wherein I killed a Tyrannosaurus rex and saved a high-rise full of people. That dream was exhilarating.

This past night's dream, however, was anything but.

The dream began in the security office of an officer tower. A lower-level scientist …

Mission accomplished

I have been blessed with very tiny feet (girls 2.5) and enviable soccer calves. Smirk. This combo had frustrated my decades long wish to strut about in tall, sleek boots.

Well, as of yesterday, mission accomplished.

Franco Sarto Mission Boot