Narcissus

Not surprisingly, I wasn't able to sleep tonight. Fortunately, though, I got an order from Amazon.com today and had a non-philosophy book to keep me occupied while waiting. My "Night Stand" and "Top Shelf" list are updated now, and tonight was reading Narcissus and Goldmund, by Hesse. I came across this quote, which, again, is along the same line as the previous two posts. Where the past few posts may have been cryptic, this if fairly clear. Anyways, figured I'd go ahead and post it since it was on my mind;

"You live fully; you were endowed with the strength of love, the ability to feel. Whereas we creatures of reason, we don't live fully; we live in an arid land, even though we often seem to guide and rule you. Yours is the plenitude of life, the sap of the fruit, the garden of passion, the beautiful landscape of art. Your home is the earth; ours is the world of ideas. You are in danger of drowning in the world of the senses; ours is the danger of suffocating in an airless void. You are an artist; I am a thinker. You sleep at the mother's breast; I wake in the desert. For me the sun shines, for you the moon and the stars." (p. 43)

However, I'd change this last line of his; "For you the sun shines on a beautiful scene, for me only the gray tones of the moon and stars." Anyways, that's just a personal preference I have for the night and it's ability to pull out the hidden side of ideas. But, take the quote how you like. The point is not that I'm living some arid life without humor or passions or deep friendships. But the point is in there somewhere...