1/10/13
Recently I had the phrase, “the unbearable lightness of being” in my mind, and while that phrase has often come to mind, I have never actually read the book of the same name. So I decided that I will get the book and I will read it. (And I did – Here.)
And to get a clearer understanding of what this is about, my sister sent me this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unbearable_Lightness_of_Being
Philosophical underpinnings
Challenging Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence (the idea that the universe and its events have already occurred and will recur ad infinitum), the story’s thematic meditations posit the alternative; that each person has only one life to live, and that which occurs in life occurs only once and never again — thus the “lightness” of being. In contrast, the concept of eternal recurrence imposes a “heaviness” on our lives and on the decisions we make (to borrow from Nietzsche’s metaphor, it gives them “weight”.) Nietzsche believed this heaviness could be either a tremendous burden or great benefit depending on the individual’s perspective.The “unbearable lightness” in the title also refers to the lightness of love and sex, which are themes of the novel. Kundera portrays love as fleeting, haphazard and perhaps based on endless strings of coincidences, despite holding such significance for humans.
I like stuff like this so I believe I will probably enjoy the book; am looking forward to reading it.
I often think of the phrase as relating to a state of mind, and achieving that “lightness” of being where I find myself paying attention to all the little things, particularly in Nature. To be really living and taking part in all that is in the Universe and feeling connections, and how small we really are.
I found some little tiny mushrooms growing all over in the backyard. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such tiny things, and I decided to take a picture of them:
Then I saw some large mushrooms and decided to take a photograph of them; I am not sure why, just having to do with the differences or something: 
And then my sister said, “if you think those are big, you should see this,” and she showed me some that were at least a foot across, and no joke: 
Just one of life’s strange little things…
And then for some reason we were talking about that saying, “If wishes were…” and my sister said, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” and I said, “If wishes were fishes, I’d throw in a line.” She remembered our mother always saying the former, and I remembered hearing the latter, although when she looked it up, I have no idea where the “fishes” one came from. And how curious, the silly things that we say that are passed down from generation to generation without us but rarely having any idea what it means or where it came from.
Here’s an interesting bit of info on such: Odd Origins of Idioms, and Phrases, Clichés, Expressions & Sayings. And there’s lots more of those kinds of websites.
Finally, I have to note that I have finally finished the 1000 piece puzzle that Cherie got for us to work on at Christmas. I ended up doing mostly the whole thing on my own, but I like puzzles. I like the challenge – and this one was quite a challenge!
I’ve decided I want to do a puzzle every month or so. I wonder if someone rents puzzles?
1/24/13 – It appears that you CAN rent jigsaw puzzles – looks a bit pricey though: Jigsaw Puzzle Rental. Oh well… something to keep in mind perhaps.
Just a little of “this and that” – and that’s all for now…