Good Intentions - Not Just a Sketch
"But it means well"
could be the title for this quick little sketch I created years ago:
Such a mysterious sketch, whatever does it mean...?
Intentions are not all that matters. Of course they do matter, to some extent! The Why.... is far from irrelevant. More important than the reason (our explanation on why we do something) is the root motivator. It sounds like those may be one and the same, however, in many cases, they are not.
Plus...!
Sometimes, things are not at all what they seem (or how they are presented).
Always remember that. :)
Placing the same on a larger scale, Alan Watts comes to mind:
I highly recommend listening to the above video. It's not even 12 minutes long!
Furthermore, his words remind me of my painting "Zoom Out"
"Hell isn't merely paved with good intentions; it's walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too. "
From "Time Must Have a Stop" by Aldous Huxley (Author of "Brave New World")...I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts, artworks. and recommendations...
I look forward to your comments, and I appreciate your upvotes & resteems!
All artworks by
Sabina Nore
www.SabinaNore.com
@anibas
Great article Sabina and inetersting and useful perspective about things we have been learned to observe different.:)
Alan Watts video is brilliant and I am thankful for presenting him within your artcle.
„The reason that you want to be better is the reason that you aren’t.“
„Let me kindly to help you, said the monky putting the fish safely up a tree“
You better be a democratic, or I shoot you
And the metaphor of a million of saits…:), great, great
And words about the imitations of virtues…wow!
Finally, your painting, which I love from the very beginning has got a new meaning and therefore becomes even closer to me. Your drawing is cute and so inspiring. Do you have more of such?
This whole article is a great treat for the soul.
Yes, imagine that plague of saints. :)
My painting, Zoom Out... actually, it's one of those I, too, am rather fond of!
As for the drawing and others like it, yes, sure I have more!
I used to want to write a book for children, which was also going to be illustrated by me. Drawings, such as this one, are a nice way to communicate something to a child, to make them wonder and ask more questions.
"A treat for the soul", that sounds so wholesome! :)
Thank you for your feedback!
"More important than the reason (our explanation on why we do something) is the root motivator."
--> "If I'm so much close to you... isn't it that I want to be sure that you'll always really be and live free ? Or, that I don't want you to be free from me ? And so, that I don't want you to be and live free ?".
Yes... paved, and walled, and roofed...
And nobody's really guilty for that kind of behaviour.
As your previous article said, this is no more the damn experimenter who directly sprays the monkeys while trying to reach the banana ; it is the stories we all build to justify why we prevent others to do some things.
To have their liberty to reach bananas or other dreams.
But... we can realize...
Yes, that's a nice example of a loving-sounding trap :)
Love as a manipulator (although that's not really love, but it's still referred to as that).
People sometimes tell each other nice stories, such as the one you mentioned... comforting, or pretty sounding stories, which make them appear kind (to themselves, and to others), and yet, IF these same stories lead to lots of unhappiness all around, then something is obviously not right.
We are not here to invent decently sounding explanations for a socially acceptable permission to be unhappy, and anyone who us preoccupied with that is wasting precious life juice.
And yes, it's not a matter of guilt or fault. Placing attention on that is, once again, a total waste of time.
You see, recognize, understand, and then act to make a change in YOUR life.
Unhappiness and unsatisfactory results quite simply mean that... make a change!
Every individual has the freedom to make that choice for themselves.
That's where that famous phrase comes into play: We cannot change others, only ourselves.
Thank you for your reply, Chris!
And now, for me...
...it's time for... silence.
I wish I had something smart to say, but everyone has said it already, so I just enjoy it quietly
You have said plenty! :)
Thank you Otto
Oh yes ! I know what you mean and feel similar.
I have argued with people over this topic a few times, where I try to make them see the motivation behind what they call altruist help or altruist work. It is not wrong to recognise this and know where it comes from, and go ahead and keep the good work going once you are sincere about what is really moving it.
Lovely painting "zoom out! also!
Yes, plus there are some topics which are so large that no article can really address them properly.
Some topics are a book..., or a conversation!
Thank you Romanie!
My intention is to comment, "Yes! You are so brilliant. Without the courage to explore ourselves that deeply, we can never live within our integrity. And that is the problem of the ages...you went right to the root, in my humble opinion."
But my secret motivation, that I write so much about (most secret to me, of course, and more obvious to others), is to curry favor with you - Beauty that makes beauty. Now, I could map out the process and the needs, increasingly less noble and childlike, but there is more gold to be found along the path than there is at its conclusion and apparent goal. So all I'll do is point and say, "I went that way."
Thanks for reflecting. Again, I'm pretty stoked about finding your blog! I really like the part of me that I see in you. It's something that I've never accepted.
Shedding light on things makes all the difference!
Hey there! So you are back!
I may be or at least seem brilliant in retrospect, but, let me tell you, the path to "brilliance" is not always an elegant one!! :P
It's important to have catlike reflexes, always land on one's feet, and on goes the journey...
What exactly is that something for you?
Hey! I am! I've been in third world America, and it is always a trip.
"I may be or at least seem brilliant in retrospect, but, let me tell you, the path to "brilliance" is not always an elegant one!! :P
It's important to have catlike reflexes, always land on one's feet, and on goes the journey..."
-...Or at least to be able to heal quickly! My path to this point in my life wasn't always the most glorious or virtuous. I think that maybe I don't require so much effort at this stage...maybe it's much more about alignment. We'll see!
That something is a thing that I'm still working out. If I could paint it, I think I would just have to admit later that I saw the image in a print some time back - a boy looking forward into an ankh, and inside the hoop in the ankh is the image of a girl. But what does that mean to me? Is it that there are things about ourselves that only certain people are permitted to reflect? Is their appreciation and favor validating us? Is it something much bigger than validation even? I'm not sure, but I've seen people at their worst, me included, over the loss of that when a relationship is over.
Maybe a better image to try to flesh this out would be your version of The Star.
If you represent the archetype of desirable for me, it's in some hermetic refinement. Words tinged with undercurrents of universes opening to the point that words aren't fast enough, aren't big enough, and only glyphs remain...imagery straight to feeling...like experience is to understanding? Hot. But not the way I would say it...the way an Egyptian god would say it. And if I stack that entire giant load onto your poor, innocent self, and you favor me - my creations - then some part of me that I haven't yet connected to, that something that you reflect, favors me.
That isn't fair at all, of course. But I can admire you for being as human as you are, and for being as brilliant as the past has made you. Looking at myself from that lens, and looking at you from this lens, I get my integrity as my intentions align with my motivations. Motivations align with intentions.
You are an intense and moving reflection. Stirring. Powerful. Desirable... I've never fully accepted the artist within me like I can accept her within you.
Hah....
(and I have to begin a reply to something like this with a "Hah..:" in order to mellow down or neutralize some of your words, at least somewhat. That way a dialogue is possible.
The dialogue interests me as the particular topic you have started here coincides with many thoughts and musings, and even conversations I've been having recently with close people.)
Actually... I'll let it marinate for a bit this time. That makes room for the emergence of more, and also trumps thinking.
For real!! That response is way heavy. It didn't take very long to type, but it did take a long time for me to press "post." It needed some time for me to sit with it...hit it from a different perspective, or frame of mind. I didn't feel that it was "appropriate" in this forum, but in the end I threw caution into the wind, left it as it was written (double checked for misspellings), and sent that puppy into the permanence in the ethers of this blockchain. Oh my.
Lately, I've been trusting synchronicity much more.
This is a different approach on the subject than I've taken before. What I worked on last winter was about manifestation and diety and concepts of dieties. Authenticity. Self knowledge. Integrity. I guess this angle is just as valid, or even more so, than discussing dieties, or archetypes in that sense. It just doesn't feel quite as polite and acceptable though. Not for public consumption! Haha!
But shouldn't it be discussed? My paradigm didn't include anything like this as I grew up in the 80s. Think about it. Think about the secular, popular music of the 80s... It was the worst advice ever! Ten years of lyrics about obsessing, stalking, and claiming women like property. Sting made an entire career out of it! (OK, it may not be fair to ascribe all that to The Police, but some of their songs make my point) I know that it's funny for me to think about, but it is also true. And very alarming.
The day before my last trip I suddenly had an idea. It was already cooking for a while, "in the fog", things were coming from different directions, I was going to write a text, but then I had too much to say, so I was going to paint, as well as write.
I thought about cancelling the trip, the urge to paint was that grand!
Then, I wrote down some thoughts, 4 pages of thoughts blurted unto digital paper, allowing me to go on a trip, and return to this some other day.
Everything I had to say had 100% to do with the manifestation of deities and archetypes in our life.
So there is another synchronicity for you.
Some people appear in our life for a reason, and while it can be a very important reason, it may not necessarily be what we first think it is. It could also be that my physical appearance, if I represent an archetype for you (and wow, what a huge thing to say!), is merely because you should be paying attention to me, but who knows for what reason, you know?
There are things I am currently trying to figure out in my life.. and I know the answer will come soon. Things are coming, from different directions, all aimed towards one meeting point. I see some of those things, others I hear approaching, but I don't yet see the meeting point, where it all connects.
It will get revealed soon enough.
Speaking of music, and the 80's....
You've been nominated!
Haha! You're awesome! I accept your nomination.
"There are things I am currently trying to figure out in my life...It will get revealed soon enough."
-That, and everything you wrote between those words? Total synchronicity! Soon enough...
I think I should be paying attention too. But you're right - who knows for what reason(s)? I haven't read any of your writing from your website yet, so I should probably start there. Or...maybe I've already started. "Things coming, from different directions, all aimed towards one meeting point." That's a place I'm very comfortable in. Sometimes being utterly literal is too slow and small, and often I'd just as soon be in that place, spinning my own reflections into yarns. Maybe a foreign tune is in my head in the first moments of a day. Some rhythm. And then maybe some fragments of writing...spoonfuls of thought...and often I hope that is as deep as it takes me. I see some of the threads and connections, and am either bold or ignorant to weave them in with my own threads. Same satisfaction watching them come together as watching them come undone.
I'd love to see those blurted thoughts!
So true, so many bad things have come from 'crusaders of good'. Darling little sketch too.
Thanks Donna!
Hehehe... I laughed at the first sketch... And Zoom Out is interesting... Some Alice in Wonderland in there? ..
But the post mostly got me thinking about my actions here on Steemit... I used to use Smartsteem to buy votes, and tried bidbot out once or twice)... I have since stopped and feel very happy about it... The votes I've been getting since have all been "organic". And THEN, I noticed, you use bots, lol....
What are your thoughts on the controversy? How do you justify using a system that many people have pointed out is bad for the platform in the long run?
These are my thoughts:
Sabina's thoughts on the controversy :)
Wonderful article and I also like the snake meme and the joke :) you are right sometimes things are not at all what they seem...I want to share a small poem from the Lord of the rings by Tolkien :
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
Thank you for sharing and have a nice day my friend...
And thank you for adding that t@mnallica :)
A great piece of lateral thinking, it is the old notion of letting things take their course again, but then we have the dilemma of seeing real injustices and atrocities which we could prevent. I would always use my own judgement (and act upon it) if I saw what I thought to be a disgusting act against a person or animal, it's just a matter of knowing where to draw the line and not interfering and imposing your will on them. A concept that I'm likely to be fighting with throughout the rest of the day:)))
I was lucky to be born when Alan was still alive, and as a young child and pre-teen listened to him on live radio broadcasts. He was very influential in my formative years, causing me to question what societal influences have on our conception of morality, leading to the reading of all the great philosophers of the past and present.
Execellent Allan watts is an eye opener 👏👏
You really exercises your wraist @anibas. Nice sketching!
This drawing wasn't so much exercise, but thank you @natz04
Much welcome friend.