Don Juan was a great seducer but a bad dad

Don Juan is a tragical figure. Better: I think that Don Juan is a tragical figure. Why? Not because he's able to seduce woman, a lot of woman. Not because I do not understand his drive, his longing, his kick, his long trail of seduced woman.

He is tragical because he entangles means and end. Seducing a woman - from a male point of view - is the means to the end 'get procreated'. It's just as simple as that. Getting procreated as species 'homo sapiens' is more than make love and make babies with the two of us. The kids also need their parents for love and all the other small, normal and ordinairy things we need for facing life. In other words: life is more than getting laid. The tragedy of Don Juan is that he doesn't act that way. In a way Don Juan is a spoiled kid: always getting what he wants. And in the real world? In the real world kids grow up and  learn that we can't always get what we want. In the real world we learn that we don't need to consume always what we can get. It seems to me that Don Juan never learned that. Don Juan' tragedy is that  he was a great seducer but he was a bad dad.

Is it really that hard not to take every step of 'Terentius' steps of Venus':  (1) see (2) talk (3) touch (4) kiss and (5) make love? Why can't you stop stepping?

On Bruna

What can I say? ... take 30 seconds - did your hear and read the sound of silence? Heard my heart, my wondering and puzzling mind?

Look at her and listen to her music: Essa Menina (This Girl), Palavras do Coração (Words of the Heart), Nascer de Novo (Born Again) and  Fim de Tarde (Evening).

What can I say? I guess I'm in love with Bruna Caram. Accompanied with all the dreams, longing and fantasies.

P.s. Don't worry I'm a married man who is content and happy with his love. Just sharing my inner thoughts and dreams with you :))

Taste & smell favourites. A smell man's list

How long will it take before you can smell and taste this blog? 10 or 20 years from now? How long will it take before you can check out my list of favourites:

• Smell of 'pouriture noble' (English 'noble rot') wine
• Glass of Château d'Yquem
• Pizza ala Siciliana: tomatos, cheese, anchovy and capers
• Fresh hay
• Smell of woodfire (my blog on this)
• Decaying leaves in a ditch
• Glass 'vieille réserve' cognac from Paul Giraud
• ... - not telling you 
• Pipe smoking Mac Baren 'mixture'
• Smell of a boathouse

Cloud Catching

 

Sometimes I like to catch clouds. Lazy lying in the grass. The smell of green and hay. The sun on my face. Hands under my head. Watching the big play up in the sky. Big clouds. Smaller clouds. The play of hide and seek of clouds, sun and blue sky.

Sometimes I try to keep up with only 1 cloud. What at first seemed one frozen tuft of wool  is, when I look in detail for some minutes, never really the same. The borders always seem to move more quickly. Correct me if I'm wrong but the clouds always seem - from my point of view - to move up. The wind that blows a cloud in different shapes.

Most of the time when I'm catching clouds I don't realize that a cloud is: a visible mass of little drops of water or frozen crystals in the atmosphere above the surface of planet Earth.

Sometimes the big play of clouds is for me the metaphor of meeting other human beings. They come. They go. They are hidden behind other clouds. Seemingly frozen but when I look in detail never the same.

Last year I was catching clouds in the pasture near the Externsteine in Germany. Looking at clouds. The big rocks (german 'Steine') on the background. The play of hide and seek of clouds, sun and blue sky. All of a sudden one glider making his thermals just in front of me under the clouds. I was so happy. For just a short brief of time everything seemed in balance, peaceful and just the way it has to be. It was just PERFECT.

Tyranny of positive thinking. Why deny our SOUR parts in life?

What's my point? There is too much positive thinking these days with the wrong motivation. We are trapped in it and are hardly able to see anymore that we deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune and blame only ourselves for our fate. We deny our sour parts.

From my point of view 'homo sapiens' life consists (non-limited list): tears, fears, love, jealousy, anger, aggression, hunger for power, horror, happiness, satisfaction, peace, outrage and bad luck. Our life is sweet AND sour. These days it seems we don't want to see our sour emotions anymore. We deny them.

Strategies to overcome our sour parts:

• Grow up! It seems we are kids when we have sour emotions.
• Change point of view. It's not sour it's sweet too. "When life hands out lemons, squeeze out a smile."
• Use another metaphor. Smile! You've got cancer. Cancer is not a problem or an illness. It's a gift.
• Transition. You will become a better, bigger and real being out of it. It's a makeover opportunity.
• Think positively. See the glass half full even when it lies shattered on the floor.

Intermezzo. Today no historical flashback from me. If you want to puzzle yourselves: the influence of manichaeism in  Christianity (look at the images) and reason as primary source since Age of Enlightenment.

What's next? I'm pleading for being a real human being, with his good and bad days, with his happy and unhappy days, with his fortune and misfortune. I'm pleading for the right to be unhappy. Huxley in his 'Brave New World': "But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."

Embrace the sweet AND sour parts in life. Don't deny! If you need an image or metaphor. Handle your emotions like 'After rain there will be sunshine AND after sunshine there will be rain'. Don't deny the rain!

Does this ring any bell for you? Or do you think I need a therapist or that I'm the next fool on the hill?

P.S. Ehrenreich tells in 'Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America And The World' (2010) that there is no scientific proof for healing from cancer by positive thinking.