Embrace the Pain

“The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body” Publilius Syrus (Roman author, 1st century B.C.)

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” M. Kathleen Casey (Canadian Speaker of the Legislative Assembly)

To fear pain indicates at the least a tendency to avoid pain. To welcome it is to welcome balance, not for promise of comparative lack of pain but the existence of pain in itself. “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain” - William Faulkner (American Nobel Prize winner for Literature 1897-1962)

Strength is to strive for, not hardness for hardness can break while strength can understand and adjust yet stand steadfast. So pain should not be sought out, nor be a fixation of interest any more than the achievement of happyness for either are but by products and should be taken as such. “We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” Kenji Miyazawa (Japanese poet and author of children's literature 1896 - 1933)

In doing so, they will gain the appreciation, that is the embrace of their existence, as they deserve without needing the strength that are to be spent on tangible goals, whichever they may be. Pain doesn't need to be enjoyed, merely embraced. Strength and indeed contentment can be achieved by acknowledging the existing social stigma of fear from pain and greed for joy and adressing that by embracing both as they come as an enriching and equally essential limb of life. “Pain and death are part of life. To reject them is to reject life itself.” Havelock Ellis (British psychologist and author 1859-1939) "Life without pain is meaningless." Arthur Shopenhauer (German Philosopher, 1788-186)

To be aware of death is to respect life. However, the embracement of that awareness void of fear will ensue in the elimination of pain connected to said fear. There is no pain in death, so there is no need to imagine, and therefore search out pain in fearing what is not. "When we exist death is not, and when death exists we are not. All sensation and consciousness ends with death and therefore in death there is neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of death arises from the belief that in death there is awareness." Epicurus (Greek philosopher 341 BCE – 270 BCE)

The concious perception of pain alters the depth of it to levels of acceptance. “Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.” Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher, 1788-1860) That distinction is brought by the differentiation between the perception of inevitability and therefore acceptance and embracement and that of rejection. "He who has a why can endure any how.” Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher and classical philologist 1844 – 1900)

With a certain disposition toward pain and pleasure, namely that of embracing said reactions, one can influence suffering and happiness.

There are no facts, only interpretations.
Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher and classical philologist 1844 – 1900)

Quote about the Phenomenology of Homenesslessnes

It is the alienation from home and homeness that is the most telling consequence of global technology, global communications, global architecture, global religion, global bureaucratisation and global economy. None of this is to be confused with Marshall McLuhan's 'global village'. The conductive to community - but global community never came. On the contrary, along with globalisation came the antithesis of community - the automisation of daily life. As structures, technologies, forms and processes became remote and indifferent to unique place, so society was privatised out of existence. To recover 'home' is thus to recover 'community', by which is implied not simply meaningful human interaction, but the built fabric and natural processes that are essential components of one's 'significant environment'. To fight for home and community is thus to fight the debilitating and degrading alienation that, so many contemporary prophets have informed us, is the modern condition. There can be few more urgent tasks.

P.R. Hay 1994a: 11 in Main currents in Western Environmental Thought

Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada is the new Gordon Gekko from Wall Street

When it comes to culturally iconic sharp tongued business characetrs, Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in The Devil wears Prada is the equivalent of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.

Gordon Gekkos celebration of Wall Street toughness and exuberant, get-rich-quick, non-apologetic, immoral broker mentality shaped a whole generation of brokers and investment bankers. Based on an number of real and existing characters, the film and iconic character acted as a manifestation of an exaggerated portrayal of a created character, which consequentially became a concrete cultural reference point and kickstarted the justification of a whole generation of Gordon Gekko wannabes.

The innate immorality, unlikeability and bad boy characteristics only enhanced the immense appeal and elevation to iconic status through several layers of simulacra.

Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly plays a very similar role in culture. Envied by her peers she holds a position of power and she plays rough and foul to get it, stay in it and ahead of everyone else, and most of all - she is utterly unapologetic about it.

What exactly is it about those two business characters that appeals to our generation?

First of all, materialistically, they have it all. They have power, money, the respect of their peers, a luxurious lifestyle and amazing clothes and toys (cars, designers at their fingertips etc etc). The immorality, cruelness, coldness and calculating, almost inhumane disposition seems to not only a small inconvenience but actually a means to be able to get to their position.

The second characteristic that is appealing is the clear display of intelligence, wit, hard work, all consuming dedication to their craft and a resulting sense that in fact, not only do they deserve their success but are excused to do as they please to keep it. Although a classic cinematic trick of unrealistic exaggeration, the ooze of coolness, wit and sharp tongues resulting in iconic quotes and characteristics make it hard to not succumb to incorporation of such industry characterisation into our culture and way of thinking as well as the way in which we view ourselves within that industry.

Iconic quotes, which succinctly express opinions and emotions many of us are to decent to express but are, when taking a few layers of sugarcoating off, exactly what driven, ambitious, intelligent, hard working people in both the fashion and stock exchange industry really do think. Here are some jewels coming from the gifted fingers and minds that are the writers Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone: "Greed is good", "Lunch is for wimps", "What's worth doing is worth doing for money", "If you need a friend, get a dog", "It's not always the most popular person who gets the job done". Similarly, Aline Brosh McKenna and Lauren Weisberger came up with "The details of your incompetence do not interest me", "By all means move at a glacial pace", "Hire the smart, fat girl", "Is there some reason that my coffee isn't here? Has she died or something?", "Bore someone else with your questions" and most poignantly "Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us." While Gekkos quotes are more memorable as actual statements, Priestly is memorable as a character and in the sharpness, tone and context of delivery of the lines.

Further films that openly admit to reflecting reality have underlined and pointed out the real source and inspiration of these two characters as well as the perception of them and re-enactment of their characteristics within their industry. For instance, the documentary The September Issue, which was a behind the scenes view on the preparation and decision making process of putting together the most important yearly edition of vogue (I love Grace by the way - on all levels), shows Anna Wintour as a decisive, has-it-all pope of fashion, revered feared and adored (as the trailer says). The devil wears prada, as we know, was mean to be based on Anna Wintour, and watching the documentary doesn't do much to make us not believe that. Director Ben Younger has often discussed as having been taken out dialogues in the script of The Boiler Room almost word for word from real conversations between young brokers he researched. For instance, there is a scene in which they watch Wall Street together and not only know it word by word but discuss it afterwards. During the introduction of new recruiters Ben Affleck's speech is filled with references to Wall Street and Glengarry Glenn Ross, another deeply established, constantly referenced business film in business and banking circles.

The layers of simulacra become very blurred, but it is clear that despite the obsession with celebrity that fill many tabloids and minds, those people who matter find their icons in tough business characters, reinterpret them, and internalise their characteristics as part of a learning and growing up process until their business characteristics become as sharply tailored to ourselves as a custom made Vera Wang gown. The fact of the argument is that those drawn to these characters already hold their truths within them and simply look to them as an affirmative cultural reference.

There's nothing wrong with being good at what you do and wanting what you get when you are, is there?

A SMART GUY

"Dost thou love life?
Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of."

-- Benjamin Franklin

He's a pretty smart dude.
Maybe he's right.
Happy New Year!