staying positive

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i have a friend who is quite cynical, but also hard-working, he just puts his head down and gets shit done.

this quality amazes me, as i get interrupted entirely by my emotions and cyclical thoughts.

and in his slightly mocking way he always says: "stay positive" and then he usually laughs.

there's so much pressure on us to be perpetually happy, smiling. sadness seems like a desease, we all know the syndroms and how people fall like sand through the fingers when going is tough. friends scatter like beads off a string. we gravitate to warmth, to light, and shun the dark shadows.

tarkovskij and bergman to the rescue for the depressed, knowing that someone else has seen, understood and reincarnated on the other side, is a shelter in itself.

above is one of those striking images for it's honesty, i came across it long time ago and keep going back to when times are hard: Bas Jan Ader "I'm too sad to tell you" and his story.. what amazes me is that he had work and family and all the things one seem to need to feel sane more or less in our society, and yet he chose to disappear in a dingy into the ocean. read here.

+ Alec Soth's show and book "Broken Manual" was one of the best things i'd seen in galleries this year. then i heard of another photo book "A natural Order" on similar topic, different context, which i like less sheerly because i personally prefer Alec Soth's work and think he traveled further to the fringe with his project...

regardless of the taste for the end result: It's seems that the time is right, and theme of self-marginalization is gaining the momentum in the society, it offers a romantic withdrawal for the viewers, to enter escapist's fantasy of freedom stripped of society norms and ultimately of meaning we try to assign to our being here. and also of responsibility -- primarily for yourself.

I've always thought depression can be so beautiful. the work that comes from is cuts straight to the heart. and yet these days the approach isn't as popular. meditation is.

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